You know, one of the sad things is that some of the worst psychologists I have known, who have done the most damage to their clients, were “Christian Psychologists”. I am a Christian myself, and have been quite disturbed by some of the advice they have handed out.
The most damaging psychologists are the ones who follow scientific materialism, which is the religion of the left. It includes “new age” concepts such as encouraging children to doubt their parents, setting family members against each other and encouraging divorce.
Many of these types of therapists, through subtle means, validate and encourage the self-destructive behavior of their patients in the name of “empowerment.” It can be quite damaging to patients who really need help but don’t get it from conventional psychology.
A sincere Christian approach is least likely to cause problems because it teaches true morality.
Yup. Just because someone is Christian doesn’t mean they are effective and helpful as psychologists.
I agree with you, we just can’t go across the board on this.
Lets look at the critics’ argument:
Some psycholgists and psychiatrists are not Christian.
All Christian psycholgists are good.
Therefore, all psychologists and psychiatrists who are NOT christian are not good.
Wow..that defies even basic logic.
It is very easy to criticize Freud if you have not studied his work completely. He has made some of the most major contributions to the study of the mind and behavior as well as even more importantly making it not ‘shameful” to have mental or emotional disorders.
Having said that, many others in the field have come along and made valid criticisms of his work and/or made progress beyond what he started.
Personal anecdote aside, keep in mind that any country with atheism as the religion of state has perverted the study of psychology to unspeakable ends. The only countries where the study has provided any benefit has been those where people believe in God.
SlapHappy you are right, and I have a theory about it. I was in what I would not hesitate to call the marriage from hell for twenty-six years. The reason I did not divorce him was because of my deep Christian belief that divorce was a sin. At my instigation my husband and I spent literally into the tens of thousands of dollars on Christian therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, etc. [Never once saw a secular therapist due to my belief that only Christians know the truth.] To a man and woman these people made the situation worse. They all advocated ‘better communication’, whereas the root problem had nothing—zero—to do with communication.
Here is a partial list of issues that were never once raised by any of the Christian counselors: sociopathy; addiction-dysfunction; co-dependence, major personality disorders, and the cycle of abuse. All the Christian therapists approached the situation as if two relatively normal people had gotten married and everything would be just peachy if only we would communicate better. They could not have been more misguided if that had been their intention.
I don’t know what they teach at Christian therapist school, but they would do better to stress that not every human being is normal than to put ALL the emphasis on communication. I speak from long, hard experience.