You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This volume contains a reprint of four lectures delivered in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the Organizing Committee of Christianity and Modern Man. Each lecture is followed by extracts from the discussion evoked by it. Two of the lecturers are psycho-analysts, and two are clergymen with some knowledge of psycho-analysis, its technique and goals. The two lectures by analysts are by far the most interesting and valuable.
Dr. Edith Weigert's subject is 'The Psychoanalytic View of Human Personality.' She begins by observing that 'the patient uses the psychotherapist like an obstetrician' and points out that 'it is not so important which philosophy the obstetrician adheres to, but it is important that he know his job and that he dedicate himself to it. The psycho-therapist need not work toward ideals of maturity, since the maturing process—like the birth process—largely takes care of itself. The analyst only tries to remove the obstacles, the shackles, the waste products that might hamper development.' This statement is perhaps a Freudian commonplace, but it meets an objection to analysis very frequently advanced by religious people and supported by the didactic emphasis in Jungian therapeutic procedures.
Dr. Weigert then states that 'Psychoanalysis is a branch of medicine and psychiatry' and reminds her hearers that a scientific understanding of the dynamic of neuroses has done much to offset the current moral devaluation of neurotics.
The moral evaluation of neurotic behaviour and attitudes is a subject on which there is no unanimity of opinion in medicine, theology, or law. The meaning of responsibility is the question at issue. Is a man responsible for his dreams, for his involuntary behaviour, for his obsessions and compulsions, for his neurotic character? In the case of delusional psychotics a negative answer to such questions is easily given.
The middle section of Dr. Weigert's lecture expounds the Freudian view of human development and its complic