[This article is the last in a four-part series on mental health. The previous articles in the series have addressed the science of psychology, the ways that faith can help those suffering from mental illness, and the role of evil in our approach to mental health.]
In the Jewish communities where Christ dwelt, the traditional greeting was “Shalom aleichem.” The phrase has traditionally been translated as “peace be to you” which is a correct but incomplete translation of the word “shalom.” This is because our current understanding of the English term “peace” essentially amounts to freedom from conflict and disruption. In contrast, when Jesus and his companions used the term, it focused as much on the presence of fullness as it did on the absence of conflict. In fact, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews explains the idea of shalom thus:
Shalom is rooted in the Hebrew word shalem, which means “whole” or “complete.” Beyond a lack of conflict, shalom is the presence of wholeness.
In other words, when Jesus and the people around Him greeted one another with “Shalom” or its extension “Shalom aleichem,” they were wishing one another wholeness, completion and flourishing, in addition to our own limited understanding of “peace.” The idea of shalom is similar to what many consider to be the ideal for mental health: a sense of contentment and well-being that flows from feelings of wholeness. In contrast, people who struggle with mental health issues often have difficulty finding a coherent narrative for their lives and struggle to integrate the various parts of themselves in a balanced way. It could be said, then, that the goal of psychological interventions is to promote shalom in the lives of help-seeking individuals.
At the risk of diving too deeply, this idea of shalom and human flourishing is not a new one. In fact, St. Augustine chronicles his own movement from disordered to properly ordered passions in his well-known book, Confessions. Similarly, many have recognized this same sort of thinking in St. Thomas Aquinas’s writings on human passions. Their philosophies both recognize the need for humans to be balanced and ordered wholes in order to truly flourish. This continuity of thought has resulted in the development of the sub-school of Thomistic psychology. Central to these ideas is the understanding that when something is unbalanced within a person, they cannot function to their fullest potential and they experience spiritual and emotional upheaval as a result. In contrast, when a person’s inner life is balanced into a cohesive whole, with each part fitting harmoniously and properly with every other part, people experience both spiritual and mental well-being.
Mental health as we understand it, is largely based in our physiology which means that to experience shalom, our physical bodies must also enter into this integrated balance. Luckily for us, the integration of body and soul is explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, saving us from having to develop our own understanding of how the two relate to one another:
The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual…Man, though made of body and soul is a unity.
Because psychology and mental health exist both at the intersection of and through the realities of body and soul, an imbalance in either contributes to mental illness and psychological distress. This means that a comprehensive Catholic understanding of psychology will necessarily address both the physical and spiritual aspects of human life.
Of course, psychology was not developed by exclusively Christian thinkers and some of its most famous contributors were decidedly not Christian. This can make such a holistic understanding of human psychology particularly difficult. Yet, as was discussed in the first article of this series, many of the theories that psychologists have proposed can contribute to our Christian understanding of mental health and well-being even if they were not developed by people who understood the fullness of human nature. Their contributions still move us towards “shalom” as it relates to the body and the soul, even if they do so imperfectly.
Unfortunately, however, Catholic psychologists and therapists must face the reality that many of their clients do not share their Christian beliefs. This forces them to choose between two options:
- They can use the fullest approach to mental health which inherently incorporates spiritual treatment into their practice but carries the cost of alienating a large number of their patients and, so, makes them impotent to help the greatest number of patients; or
- They can focus only on the physical and mental components of their patients’ struggles, thereby helping the greatest number of patients possible, but sacrificing certain foundational aspects of Catholic psychology unless spiritual issues are brought into treatment by the patients themselves.
While there are some mental health practitioners who have chosen the first choice, many others, myself included, have opted for the latter. They opt to reach the greatest number of people in need and trust that the spiritual needs of their patients will either be raised by the patients themselves during treatment or addressed by others in their patients’ lives. In fact, it was the desire to help all grieving families that compelled me to make my book Raising Sunshine a secular guide in the hope that it would be beneficial to all who need it. Making this choice is not unlike the decision that physicians often make to treat their patients’ physical needs as death nears, while leaving their spiritual needs in the hands of others. It is also not unlike countless other choices we make every day in order to live within a secular world and to meet people where they are. It is an understandable decision and does much good, but it cannot be denied that it comes at a cost.
One way to minimize that cost is to allow patients to direct discussions of spiritual matters. Therapists who do this will find that when patients are open about their faith and willing to talk about spiritual issues, they can play a significant role in wrestling with them about the ways that mental health impacts their spiritual well-being and vice versa. Additionally, in the same way that they would with physical issues that are outside of their scope of practice, they can develop networks for appropriate referrals within their diocese so that they can assist their patients in finding appropriate spiritual guidance and resources.
When patients do not raise the topic of their faith in therapy, Catholic mental health practitioners can still play a key role in helping their patients to achieve as much healing and wholeness as possible with a purely secular approach. They can even do this while prompting their patients to dig deeper into their understanding of themselves and the world around them, which might eventually lead them to consider more spiritual questions. For the most part, however, therapy with these patients will largely follow a more traditional approach that respects the spiritual boundaries of individual patients and offers them the sort of care that they are open to receiving. In other words, while not offering them the best and fullest help possible, it still provides them with assistance and, in this case, something is much better than nothing.
Finally, if a Catholic mental health professional encounters a patient who believes that if they only had enough faith or prayed well enough, their mental health issues would disappear, these professionals can help to gently correct these erroneous beliefs, encourage patients to investigate and embrace scientifically backed interventions, and help them to recognize that scientific advances in the field may actually be the answers to their prayers for healing. St. Ignatius of Loyola once wrote, “Work like everything depends on you, pray like everything depends on God,” and St Benedict Regula said, “Pray and work.” Even St. Paul admonished us that faith that does not work itself out through action is dead. This is true in matters of mental health, as well. As physical beings, we cannot reduce everything to that which is spiritual in nature and demand that God heals us in a supernatural way. Instead, we must embrace the mundane physical gifts that God has given us and do the difficult work of healing while trusting that God, the ultimate healer, is working through our efforts.
By approaching therapy in these varied ways depending on specific patient needs, psychologists and therapists can help to move their patients towards a peace and wholeness that bolsters mental health and well-being. As much as a patient allows it, they can be good stewards of the knowledge and instruments that God has given us through the field of psychology, while not letting their usefulness be limited by more traditional mandates that mental healthcare remain separate from spiritual care. In short, therapy can be directed towards shalom – peace, wholeness, and completion – for all patients, even if the pathways to that shalom look quite different.
Image: Adobe Stock. By New Africa.
Ariane Sroubek is a writer, school psychologist and mother to two children here on earth. Prior to converting to Catholicism, she completed undergraduate studies in Bible and Theology at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She then went on to obtain her doctorate in School and Child Clinical Psychology. Ariane’s writing is inspired by her faith, daily life experiences and education. More of her work can be found at medium.com/@sroubek.ariane and at https://mysustaininggrace.com.
Popular Posts