THE ORTHODOX PSYCHOTHERAPY
Before to speak about psychotherapy, one has first to point out, that today, modern Orthodox Christians are fully accepting the contemporary psychiatry and psychotherapy as a part of the valid medical treatment. However the term “Ψυχοθεραπεία” (psychotherapeia) can be understood also as a term of the Orthodox theology. All the more, since its language, in contrast to the Western theology, uses rather medical than juridical terms. According to the recently published book entitled “Orthodox Psychotherapy” of the contemporary Greek theologian, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos (Hierotheos, 1994): “…the Christian Orthodox faith can be considered neither as a “philosophy” or “ideology”, nor as a “natural religion” or “cult”, but as a “healing”. Healing from the loss of the sense of life, healing of the distress, which is due to the spiritual disorientation…”. Thereafter Church is an “inn”, a “hospital”, as in parable of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10,25]. Holy Fathers are “expert physicians”, monasteries are “medical schools” and finally – the psychotherapy gains its own significance: it is the healing of the Souls. But what should be the aim of such a therapy? What is mean in this context by terms like “normal”, “healthy” or “natural”? And finally, how can be answered the basic anthropological question what – or who is “Human”?
According to the Orthodox theology, Human is the supreme creation of God and, in the same time, he is the Image of God. Human is of Body and Soul, but also of divine Spirit [Genesis 1,27] and, even due to the later peculiarity, the Human is not just an “Individual” (as “one” isolated from “many”), but moreover a “Person” (προσωπόν, prosopon), which is unrepeatable and unique and which has his past and his future and which is able to grow but also to fall. To be a “Person”, it means that the Human is able to undergo relations. Moreover, he is literally determined by his relations^. (Jezek, 2005). These can be intrinsic – as relations between Body and Soul (e.g. Human is conscious of his physical, psychical, as well as his spiritual state), as well as extrinsic, which means that Human can be conscious of God’s transcendent existence, the existence of his next (especially in sense of love, care and responsibility) and finally of the nature, by which he is surrounded (in sense of the ecological responsibility) [Genesis 1,28]. In the same time, the divine potential of the Human enables him to be a “creative being”: he is able to create things and to realise his own intentions – according to his own though, ideas, and even the Spirit (Scouteris, 2003). In the same time, it is the “divine potential” of the Human, which enables him to make morally based decisions and to distinguish between the Good and the Bad according to his own “heart”, as would be said in the language of old religions. As Soul, Body and Spirit being in together in “symphony”, enables to Human to realize himself in a widest thinkable measure of his liberty. This is an ideal state, state at the moment of the creation of Human, a state when the Human was in the closest vicinity of God, The Creator and Παντοκράτορ – “Pantokrator” (“Everything-Keeper”). It was the state before the Fall (primary sin), at the moment of creation of Human and from theological point of view “before the expulsion from the Garden of God” [Genesis 3]. This is also the state, which Orthodox theology considers as the most “natural”, “healthy” and “normal” (Belejkanic, 1995). After the “Fall” this state has changed considerably. The communion between God and the Human was broken, the Human felt into a state of πάθος — pathos, which means pain, passion, illness and which in consequence, is the reason for death as the final separation of Soul from the Body [Rom 5,12]. But, according to the Orthodox theological doctrine, this state is not entirely hopeless one. It is grace to the “divine potential”, by which the Human is called to return back to God: To make first step on the way of his salvation from the negative consequences of the “Fall”. According to the “Fathers”, which, as mentioned in the Orthodox Church are considered as a high theological authority, the “salvation” is a positive state. But in contrast to the Western theology, Holy Fathers are less interested in the question of the “guilt”, as in the “therapy” of the consequences of the “Fall”. Putting on Christ, the Human has to fulfil this effort in synergy with God, but in the same time in free will and by fully conscious decision. And even this, as the principle of synergy between Human and God, is the basic and substantial category of the Orthodox anthropology (Scouteris, 2003).
On the other hand, this “therapy” comprises the whole “Person” of the concrete Human, his Soul but also his Body, which in contrast to some Western theological opinions, is not opposed to the Soul, but is (should be) with him “in symphony”. Thereafter, “salvation” is a dynamic process, which has to be begun and fulfilled in a holistic way, by the whole human person – by the Soul but also by the Body (Hierotheos, 1994). Thus, the “purification” of the Soul should be done first, by “ignition of love” of God and than, by the “entrance in communion” with Him. Such process is achieved via “νούς” — nous – a term which can be translated as the “reason” of the Human, or, as mentioned in different works of Holy fathers, as the “eye” of the Soul, the “eye” of the Heart, or as the “eye” of the Body.
A great theologian Gregory Palamas (1268-1310) gives concrete suggestions how to overcome the “passions”. It should be done by quiet prayer – not as the Stoics do, by mortification and repression, nor by Gnostic retreat from the material world but to overcome the passions by transformation. And for this way, Gregory Palamas propose three steps of the personal way of “return” to God. It should start by prayer and fasting (e.g. by “psychosomatic effort”), in ησυχία, hesycheia, which means a harmonic stillness and appeasement of the Soul”, in order to attain θέωσις, theosis, which means “deification”, to be as like as God( Ware, 1997; Belejkanic, 1995). It is highly indicative for the divergent development of the Christianity, that the last serious theological conflict between West and East concerned the matter of “hesychasm”. It took place in 14th century, originally as a disputation between two ethnic Greeks: the already mentioned Gregory Palamas and Barlaam of Calabria (+1350). It was Barlaam who criticised the “technique” of prayer of Monks on Mount Athos, which was brought by them from Eastern Mediterranean from the early times of the Christian monasticism. The Athonite monks pretended to see the “divine uncreated light”, after their long time repeated ascetic – what they called “Jesus prayer” and which was performed in stillness and fasting. Barlaam disapproved this practice commenting it by following words “…holiness and perfection cannot be found without division, reasoning and analysis, …anyone desiring to possess perfection and holiness must be taught “methods of distinction, reasoning and analysing”. But Gregory Palamas replied this view as heresy of the Stoics and Pythagoreans: “…we Christians do not regard as true knowledge that which is found in words and reasoning, but that demonstrated by deeds and life, which is not only true but also sure and irrefutable…” and he goes on to say that “no one can know himself through distinctions, reasoning and analyses unless his “nous” has been made free of conceit and evil by severe penitence and intensive ascetism…” (Hierotheos, 1995)
In context of “psychotherapy” it means, that the role of Christian faith can be reduced neither to a rite, nor to an intellectual discussion. The Christian “psychotherapy” should be fulfilled by effort in order to find stillness of the Soul and self-reflection and to recognize his own Person as the Image of God. As has been mentioned, only a part of the “patristic heritage” is known at the present. Lot of them has been forgotten, destroyed, lost or simply not read because of lacking knowledge of the language of that time. An important, from the point of view of the Orthodox, is the work Philokalia, which means “The Love of Good Things”. It is a collection of texts, compiled by monks of Mount Athos in the 18thcentury, e.g. during the period of a deep cultural depression of Hellenic, and especially Orthodox-Christian culture in Turkish-Ottoman Empire, but in a certain sense also in Russia. Philokalia is an anthology of wisdom of famous ascetics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor as well as from other countries, which lived between 4th and 14th century. Its first edition in Greek is related to the name of Nikodim the Athonite (1748-1809) and appeared 1782 in Venice of more than 1200 pages. Shortly after then, it was translated into the Church-Slavonic language by Paissy-Velichkovsky (1722-1799) and just recently, it was published in English (trans. by Palmer et al., 1998). As one example for many, one have to cite Maxim the Confessor (580-662 A.D.):
“…Misuse of intellect powers is ignorance and stupidity, misuse of incentive and desiring powers is hatred and licentiousness”. “…The proper use of these powers produces spiritual knowledge, moral judgment, love and self- things but avarice, not to begotten of child but unchastity, not esteem but self-esteem.
“MEDICAL” vs. “ORTHODOX” PSYCHOTHERAPY
The term “psychotherapy” as used in today’s psychiatry is an approach to cure mental disorders and pathological behaviours. All in sense of the materialized approach of the objective medical science, its experience is substantiated by biological models, which are based for example on biochemistry of neurotransmitters or on molecular psychopharmacology. Usually, results of such approaches are demonstrated by evidence-based studies, which in turn, are preformed on collectives of individuals and evaluated by statistical methods. By contrast the “Orthodox” psychotherapy pretend to be the therapy of sense of life, not only of its behaviour (Vlachos). Its importance independent of the kind or stage of the (somatic) disease. Moreover the Orthodox “psychotherapy” is addressed not only to patient but also to physicians as well to anybody. In other words, “Orthodox psychotherapy” is the therapy of Soul in the original sense. It should help to find him-self in sense of self-knowledge, in order to overcome the spiritual disorientation by return to God and to origin of the Human in his proper nature and goodness. This way is proposed by purification of the soul, by effort of the body by finding the base of his self. Thus, by encouraging the own spiritual grow of the own “Personality”. Finally, “Ψυχοθεραπεία” is an important task of the Orthodox theology. It is also an important aspect, which forms “mentality” of people, which is historically related to the culture of the Christian East. And finally, it can be an interesting suggestion in matter of Human spirituality.
REFERENCES
Belejkanic I. Pravoslavne dogmaticke bohoslovie I. & II. (Orthodox Dogmatic Theology I & II), Orthodox Theological Faculty, University of Presov, Slovakia, 1996
Efthimiou M. How old is the Orthodox Church?. Available online at http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/history.shtml
Hierotheos V. (Transl. by Esther ECW). Orthodox Psychotherapy. The Science of The Fathers. Levadia, Greece, Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1994
Jezek V. Od individualismu k obecenstvi. Uvod do byzantske teologicke atropologie [From The Individualism to The Community. Introduction in Byzantine Theological Anthropology]. Orthodox Theological Faculty, University of Presov, Slovakia, 2005
Scouteris C. Bioethics in the Light of Orthodox Anthropology. Proceedings of the Conference: Christian Anthropology & Biotechnological Progress, Chania, Greece, 75-89, 2003
Palmer GEH, Sherrard P, Ware K (Trans). The Philokalia. The Complete Text compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain & St. Makarios of Corinth, Vol. I-IV. London UK, Faber & Faber, 1998
Ware T. The Orthodox Church (4th Reprint). London UK, Penguin, 1997
[1] …in sense of “geographically universal” but also “integral” concerning the faith
[2]…for example the liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
[3]…see the historical and theological disputation around filioque, which was the final reason for the Great Schism in 1054
(Source: http://www.oodegr.com/english/psyxotherap/what_is_psychotherapy.htm)
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