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Ordinarily a pamphlet comprising one paper reprinted (with a change of title) from the Journal of Psychology and Theology together with a Brief Response written by the Administrative Secretary of the Clinical Theology Association might not have merited notice among the book reviews. But the Association evidently proposes a series of Lingdale Papers; as in this case, they will no doubt deal with the interface between psychotherapy or counselling and the Christian faith.
Such writing must be tested in the terms of the quality of its theology, of its psychotherapeutic content and of its treatment of their integration. Benner's theology, tactfully modified by Peter van de Kasteele in his Response, rests upon a substitutionary account of the atonement; his unsatisfactory use of object relations theory includes the proposition that one of the basic curative factors in psychotherapy is ‘…to encourage the patient to put inner confusion and chaos on to the therapist…’ (nothing here about mirroring or the withdrawal of projection); and the relationship between them lies in a parallel concerning the unconditional acceptance of the badness of others.
These reviewers believe this kind of cross-disciplinary enterprise to be valuable in principle. However, perhaps inevitably because of its brevity, the present example is superficial and - in encouraging counsellors to be simply persistent receptacles in the name of Therapeutic Love - seriously misleading. We must hope for better things later in the series.
Sheila David Millard