Cure of the soul, part 1

Before Freud, Jung, and Adler — before psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and the rest — people spoke instead of the "cure of the soul".

The concept sounds like a relic from a bygone era, but it is still dusted off and trotted out from time to time. For example, here is an excerpt from a recent treatise by an Orthodox priest:

Contemporary man, tired and discouraged by the various problems which torment him, is looking for rest and refreshment. Basically he is seeking a cure for his soul. …

According to Orthodox tradition, after Adam's fall man became ill; his nous [mind/heart] was darkened and lost communion with God. Death entered into the person's being and caused many anthropological, social, even ecological problems. …

Many psychological illnesses are caused by the anxiety of death, the lack of meaning in life, a guilty conscience and the loss of communion with God on man's part. Surely the theology of the Church can help by either preventing or by healing people suffering from such existential dilemmas.

I'd like to open up a dialogue on this subject. At least three questions are relevant to the dialogue:

1. Do human beings suffer from a spiritual or psychical malaise?
2. If so, what precisely is wrong? (What is your diagnosis of the malaise?)
3. How can the malaise be remedied? (What treatment would you prescribe?)

In this post, I'd like to focus on the first question. I intend to address questions 2 and 3 together in a follow-up post.

In my opinion, the answer to question #1 is a definite Yes.

Consider the astonishing technological advances made in the West in the past few hundred years; but consider also how little progress we have made in terms of human nature itself. Among the innovations that spring to mind: democracy; human rights codes; the emancipation of women; the Industrial Revolution; the virtual eradication of many diseases; the mapping of the human genome; the ability to travel to the opposite side of the globe in a matter of hours; the exploration of space; and the invention of computers and associated information technology.

In short, we are profoundly privileged to live in this part of the world at this point in history. Why then is depression so commonplace among us? Why haven't we achieved anything like an equitable distribution of wealth? Why is the incidence of murder so high in our cities? Why do racism and hate speech continue to sprout up like bad weeds? Why is it still unsafe for women to walk alone at night? Why are totalitarianism and attempted genocide still recurrent themes of geo-political history?

Or perhaps I should narrow the focus to just one straightforward illustration. Many of us North Americans drive cars and live in homes that are far bigger than we need. Sometimes it's a matter of "conspicuous consumption":  i.e., consuming more resources than one needs just to impress one's neighbours. Other times, it's just a matter of thoughtlessness:  e.g. when people who ought to know better put things that could be recycled into the trash.

Whether or not you believe in global warming, everyone knows that the West's bloated way of life is unsustainable. It is not possible for everyone in the world to live as we do without rapidly despoiling the environment, resulting in a global ecological disaster.

In sum, human beings are both spectacularly advanced and spectacularly backwards.

The analysis is hardly original to me. Christian theologians have always maintained that human beings have both a semi-divine nature and a beastial nature, in approximately equal measure. I believe it was St. Augustine who likened humanity to the ruins of a once-great civilization. We are created in the image of God, which is evident in our sublime achievements; but that the image of God in us is corrupted and defaced is also manifest. Here we return to the argument of the Orthodox priest, that the human race has fallen from a great height and every individual suffers the consequences.

In my view, this is still the best explanation of the evidence. But I'd like to how my non-Christian readers would answer question #1. Do human beings suffer from a spiritual or psychical malaise, in your opinion?

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copyright © 2006, Stephen Peltz