The term Psychopannychia triggers our imaginations. We might
think of some type of psychiatric disorder, perhaps an anxiety related
disorder. Psychopannychia (the soul
active all night long) is actually the name of a published work. It was John
Calvin’s first written work in which he intended to speak as a theologian
(Tavard, 2000, p. 4). He was addressing a 16th century controversy
regarding the soul falling asleep at death and waking up at the final resurrection. Calvin “…considered it his duty to take up
the pen in defense of the true doctrine, namely that the soul neither sleeps
nor dies at bodily death, but remains fully alive as it is taken up in the
Lord” (Tavard, 2000, p. 1). The term “soul” is actually referring to the person
remaining fully alive at bodily death. Could this discussion of the issue be
relevant to clarifying how we should regard persons in this life, as we work
with them in psychotherapy?
According to Beveridge, Psychopannychia
was published in 1534, when Calvin was 25 years old - two years earlier than
the Institutes first known edition of 1536 (Calvin, 1852). “Now the Temporal
nearness of Psychopannychia and the
first Institutio as they were
composed and published hints at a hidden connection between the theme of the
first – the soul and its immortality – and the starting point of Calvin’s
systematic theology: God-knowledge and self-knowledge” (Tavard, 2000, p. 4).
Perhaps you have at some time referenced this quote: “Our wisdom, in so far as
it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two
parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves” (Calvin, 1995, p. 37). Calvin’s
statements in the Institutes, about the knowledge of our selves, can be
interpreted within the context of his statements about the soul in
Psychopannychia.
Calvin approached the issue of the immortality of the soul
in a way that was “profoundly revolutionary” for this time period (Tavard,
2000, p. 31). “He chose to confront the thesis of the death of the soul on the
sole grounds of Scripture and of the testimonies of the early Church. In this
perspective he had to rely on revelation and theology, for it is the revealed
knowledge of God that is key to real self-knowledge” (Tavard, p. 31). In other
words, he was not relying on autonomous reasoning for his view of the soul, but
rather allowed his view of the soul to be informed by Scripture.
Autonomous human reasoning has not gotten us very far toward
settling the debate about human nature and consciousness. Yet, how can we
believe we know how to help a person in psychotherapy, if we don’t have a clear
understanding of human nature and consciousness - of personhood?
Let’s consider a comparison between an autonomously reasoned
understanding of personhood and a data-mined understanding of a computer user.
Psychology has theorized about the person on the basis of observation, and
hypotheses have been reasoned and researched. A wealth of information about
human functioning and probable personality structures has resulted. However,
this process of discovery is similar to that of data mining for information in
the cyber world.
Data mining is knowledge discovery in databases. When I go
to my email, I find banners that relate to websites I’ve visited recently and
purchases I’ve made online. The information on my computer habits has been
mined. Much can actually be known about me by mining my computer behavior.
However, this will never add up to knowing my person or identifying the real
me. My person is not what has been done by me through my computer or even what
is stored on my computer hard drive. Likewise, one’s person is not the same as
the data that psychological methods of understanding reveal. We cannot
data-mine psychologically and believe we have found the real person.
For Calvin, the Scriptural perspective was that “The body,
which decays, weighs down the soul, and confining it within an earthly
habitation, greatly limits its perceptions” (Calvin, 1851). Further, “…when we
put off the load of the body, the war between the spirit and the flesh ceases”
(Calvin, 1851). This soul, for Calvin, “…possesses reason, intellect, and will
– qualities that are not annexed to the body” (Calvin, 1851). These were not
the words of someone who was just ignorant of psychological functioning, but
rather the perspective of one who has allowed the Scriptures to inform him of
the composition of the human person. Though profitable for much understanding
of human psychological functioning, autonomous reasoning cannot discover that
which only the Scriptures can reveal about the person.
If we align ourselves with this Scriptural view of the
person as being the soul who inhabits a human body, but is a functioning person
even apart from the body, then our approach to forming an alliance with the
person in psychotherapy will need to correspond. According to Duncan (2010, p.
37) the therapeutic relationship is one of the largest contributors to outcome.
The amount of change attributable to the alliance is “…five to seven times greater
than that of specific models or techniques” (Duncan, 2010, p.37). This working
alliance is the “…bond between the therapist and client as well as the
agreement about the tasks and goals of therapy” (Duncan, 2010, p. 68). In other
words, there needs to be a good connection that the therapist makes with the
client, in order for psychotherapy to have a positive outcome.
Though not specified, I believe that the therapist’s view of
human nature, in general, and the client’s personhood, in particular, plays a
major part in the therapist being able to build a working alliance. Consider this, how would you be impacted by a
therapist who believed you to be no more than a bundle of psychological and
biological processes? By contrast, how would you feel to know that your
therapist was coming along side of and affirming your person and together the
two of you would tackle the changes needed to psychological processes. Isn’t
this already how we functionally provide psychotherapy. An understanding of the
soul, such as Calvin’s, provides a Scriptural paradigm of the person out of
which there can develop more congruence between our actual work with the person
and our psychological models of theory and treatment.
References
Calvin, J. (Henry Beveridge, trans. 1851). Psychopannychia. http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/calvin_psychopannychia.html.
Calvin, J. (1995). Institutes
of the Christian religion. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.
Duncan, B.
L., Miller, S. D., Wampold, B. E., & Hubble, M. A. (Eds.). (2010). The
heart & soul of change (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Tavard, G. H. (2000). The starting point of Calvin’s theology. Grand Rapids, MI:
Wm B. Eerdmans.
Dennis Morgan PsyD, MATS
Columbia
International University
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