May is Mental Health Awareness month and there is much being written on the subject. But I would like to pose a couple of questions that I believe need to be asked as we think about people’s mental and spiritual well-being. Has psychology, as we know it today, affected the spread of the gospel? And has it hindered spiritual growth in believers?

When I speak of psychology, I’m referring to it in the counseling or therapeutic sense. This has to do with diagnosing problems and seeking to change a person’s behavior, thinking, attitudes, values, and beliefs in an effort to solve those problems.

I don’t mean to imply in any of my comments that counselors of all kinds don’t want to help people. But as followers of Christ, we need to hold everything up to the light of God’s Word. I hope to do that in this post.

Psychology & Christianity

The following is a quote from a book entitled, Psychology and Christianity: Five Views, edited by Eric L. Johnson:

It is widely acknowledged that factions in American culture have been embroiled over the past four decades in a conceptual and political battle grounded in different views of morality, values, epistemology and the role of religion in public life, a “culture war” of great importance to evangelicals (Hunter, 1991). Less well known are the similar battles waged within the evangelical community, one of which concerns the relation of psychology and Christianity. What has led to this particular conflict? There are at least two factors. For one, modern psychology has become enormously influential in our culture and on the American church. And two, since its founding 130 years ago, modern psychology has been largely devoid of reference to religiousness, and often it has been downright hostile to religion, …

Some of you may be aware of that battle, some may not. Some of you may have embraced psychology, perhaps under the label of Christian psychology, and you may disagree with what I’m going to share today. If so, I hope you’ll keep an open mind and examine what I say in light of Scripture.

In this three-part series, I want to talk about the differences between biblical counseling (a ministry I’ve been involved in for about 22 years) and psychology. Then I want to look at the questions I posed at the beginning.

The Roots of Modern Psychology

This is not meant to be an in-depth discussion covering every theory of psychology, just an overview.

Sigmund Freud

Most of us probably know the name Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis.

He used hypnosis and later what he termed “free association” where the patient would talk for hours about whatever came to his mind. From that data, the doctor would interpret what Freud believed were the patient’s unconscious drives, often pointing to sexual issues, including infantile sexuality. Later he got into the study of dreams claiming that while sleeping, our minds try to bring to the conscious mind traumas that cause emotional problems.

Freud was bitterly antagonist to religion and all forms of religious authority.

It’s, also, well-documented that during the years he formulated his theories, he became addicted to cocaine and had an avid interest in the occult and numerology.

But his biggest problem was that like all of us apart from God, Freud was looking to his own sinful heart for answers to man’s problems.

Many modern psychologists would say they are not Freudian. But if they talk about “getting in touch with your feelings,” “going back to your past to experience past traumas,” or things like “repressed memories,” they are Freudian in practice at least to some degree.

Abraham Maslow

The next person I want to mention is Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). He is called “the Father of Modern Psychology.” Maslow was an avowed atheist and, as such, didn’t believe in God or that man is accountable to God.

He rejected some of Freud’s ideas and, instead, claimed unmet needs are at the root of our problems.

Maslow developed what he called the “Hierarchy of Needs.” He claimed that for a person to become “self-actualized” or fulfilled, he must first have his underlying needs met. Those needs start with physiological needs (air, water, and food). They are followed by the need for security and safety, the need for love and belonging, and finally competence, prestige, and esteem. His theories have evolved and become widely accepted, in part, as the need for good self-esteem.

He believed that man is basically good, but that society hinders his attempts to do well and be successful.

In therapy, he emphasized people’s inherent goodness and aimed to increase the patient’s self-knowledge and an understanding of his potential.

Erik Erikson

The third is Erik Erikson (1902-1994). He was an American Psychoanalyst who studied under Freud’s daughter Anna. He believed in evolution and looked at mankind as a higher form of animal.

Others

There were many others. Among them was William James who wrote a landmark book entitled, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. In it, he claimed that an idea is true if it “works.”

Behaviorist John B. Watson claimed human behavior was about response to stimuli. And another behaviorist B.F. Skinner claimed to offer “a systematic and scientific program to alter the nature of man,” though none of it included God.

Eric Fromm, Carl Jung, the men I’ve just mentioned, and most of Freud’s other successors expressed the same disdain, even hatred, for God and religion.

While this is just a quick overview, just hearing what these men believed should throw up some red flags.

Rooted in Humanism

What these philosophies have in common is that they are rooted in humanism, the belief that human beings are basically good and can find rational ways of solving their own problems. And they can do so apart from God or any divine being.

If we go back to Genesis 3, that’s basically the lie Satan sold Eve. You can be like God, knowing good and evil.

You may, also, remember what God asked Adam in Genesis 3.11 when they tried to hide from Him because they were naked and afraid.

God asked, “Who told you, you were naked?”

In other words, what is your source of truth? This is a very important question when it comes to evaluating psychology and its compatibility with Christianity. To do that we must look at some of the presuppositions of modern psychology and compare them to biblical suppositions on counseling and emotional or mental health.

In the next post in this series, I’m going to discuss those presuppositions and some of the problems with them. And in part three, we’ll look at the presuppositions of biblical counseling and the differences between the two. I hope you’ll come back on Wednesday for part two and Friday for the conclusion of this series. And if you found this post helpful, I hope you will share it on your favorite social media platform. ♥

Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna

Some information from:

Psychology and Christianity (Spectrum Multiview Book Series) (p. 7). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition

Psychologized Man by Martha Peace

Why Christians Can’t Trust Psychology by Ed Bulkley

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