The Soul of Psychology
Modern Mental Health Ideology vs. Christianity
Seeing Dr. Paul Vitz’s article, “Seventy Years of Psychology,” in the March/April Touchstone was a pleasant surprise. He is a luminary in the psychology and mental health fields, and although his focal point professionally for many decades has been the intersection of Christianity and psychology, I don’t recall ever seeing his writing in Touchstone before. My own training in the mid-1980s and early 1990s is in a related subfield, marriage and family therapy (my calling it a subfield would no doubt irritate those who pioneered it and those who educated me!), so my direct exposure to him and his work was comparatively minimal. In a few paragraphs, he masterfully chronicles the significant developments in the psychological world going back to the mid-twentieth century, and he concludes that there is much to be hopeful about regarding that world’s contribution to the larger world’s wellbeing, especially because more recent models of psychology give credence to the importance of spirituality as a component of human flourishing.
It thus feels a bit disrespectful, given his stature and my relative “nobody-ness,” for me to declare that I cannot come to the same sanguine point of view that he does. I do agree that the inclusion of spirituality, which began to show up about 25 years ago, has been a welcome addition to the field, giving opportunities to those of us holding Christian (and other religious) worldviews to contribute academically and clinically, and that there have been notable Christians operating within the secular profession (he mentions Everett Worthington as one example with whom I am familiar).
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Mark Odell holds a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy and has been in private practice for the last 20 years. Prior to that, he spent ten years as a faculty member in the secular academy in the field of counseling. He and his wife have three adult children and one grandchild, and attend Crossroads Church in Kalispell, Montana.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on culture from the online archives
31.2—March/April 2018
The Transmission of Christianity Is Not a New Task by Nathanael Devlin
32.2—March/April 2019
Reality Shows, Even in a Popular TV Series by C. E. Smith
more from the online archives
20.8—October 2007
The Deep & Abiding Biblical Roots of Western Liberal Education by David Lyle Jeffrey
16.5—June 2003
on the Importance of Fathers to Churchgoing by Robbie Low
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
