Has God ever been in your therapy room? Are you sure?
I’ve always loved ‘Closer to Fine’ by folk rock duo Indigo Girls. There's something about that stomping rhythm, those satisfying harmonies, and the evocative lyrics that draw me in every time I hear it.
Recently, while contemplating this very question about the place of God in therapy, I found myself humming one particular line of the song over and over: ‘there’s more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line’.
It seemed to me that when it came to the ‘presence’ of God in my therapy room I needed to make space for lots of different perspectives on this significant human question. I wondered - Can philosophy help me to do this? Is there an answer out there?
Human Positions
We humans are always seeking, and we crave answers to life’s big questions.
Well, darkness has a hunger that's insatiable And lightness has a call that's hard to hear
- Indigo Girls
Many, hoping to illuminate their personal darkness, turn to God to find belonging, direction, love, purpose, safety and even wisdom. Others turn away. For some, religion is a focal point for culture, community, and charity, and for others religion is a nucleus for dogma, alienation, and abuse of power. As a psychotherapist I frequently explore such themes of good and evil, and of meaningful living, with clients as they grapple with issues of bereavement, identity, illness, moral dilemma, trauma and so on. And this is where we meet God in the therapy room.
Philosophical Positions
So back to my search for a philosophical answer. The Ancient Greeks, Plato, and Aristotle both were of the view that a perfect divinity did exist. But Epicurus argued that human suffering and the existence of a God just didn’t add up. This debate continued through the ages in conflicting arguments and counterarguments; ontological (Anselm), cosmological (Aquinas), teleological (Paley) and moral (Kant). Then during the Enlightenment philosophy and religion went their separate ways as thinkers like Descartes turned to science and reason to conclusively explain God.
Modern philosophers wanted to understand why humankind was so gripped by this subject in the first place. For Kierkegaard, the ‘leap of faith’ was a divine and necessary antidote for despair while for Marx, God was a disempowering anaesthetic for human suffering that we had invented. Even Freud saw God as a projection that allowed us to deal with the anxiety of living. Nietzsche famously stated that “God is dead, and we have killed him” because he thought our modern civilisations had outgrown the belief that God existed and instead now turned to things like art and philosophy to give life meaning.
Yeah, we go to the Bible, we go through the workout We read up on revival, we stand up for the lookout
- Indigo Girls
Psychotherapeutic Positions
The Neo-Freudian, Erich Fromm, says that we have a deep-seated need to be in relationship with God and he suggests that the love of God has roots in a craving for union that can be analysed in therapy. The Cognitive Behavioural therapies (CBT) maintain that although rigid belief systems can be unhelpful, the focus of the belief itself eg. God, is of less concern. Indeed, many spiritual-like practices such as reflectiveness, meditation and compassion are used in contemporary CBT modalities. The Existential-Humanistic therapies are of course, well placed to examine life’s big questions and may, in and of themselves, provide space for spiritual exploration without devotion to a God or religion. Multicultural approaches are open to seeing religion and spirituality as dimensions that impact (usually positively) the identity and psychological wellbeing of both clients and therapists.
Clearly then, the great minds in philosophy and psychotherapy have hotly debated the grounds and reasons for and against believing in God. Their ideas offer practicing therapists today a rich menu of viewpoints to explore. And while they may not have reached a consensus as to the existence of God or the validity of religion, the sheer scale of debate in this area tells us that the ‘God’ question remains important.
Philosophical Psychotherapy
So, what should I do when I work with a theist or atheist client if they want to bring God into the room? How do I position myself when working with such a fundamental issue, when even the Big Thinkers can’t give me a straight answer?
Well one suggestion from psychiatrist T. Byram Karasu is that I could adopt a Predicate Theology. This is a philosophically informed way of thinking about the ingredients of divinity such as love, compassion, mercy and so on. Philosophers Feuerbach (1890) and Schulwis (2010) came up with this, in case you were wondering. Basically it’s about understanding that these features give meaning to life for many people. Karasu makes the point that this can help all of us, clients and therapists alike, to transcend religion, and to hold a fully authentic position.
The psychotherapist Chris Mace also wants therapists to draw on philosophical perspectives since he reckons this will give them a philosopher’s knack for analysis, curiosity, and open mindedness. So even though a therapist might see themselves as a spiritual person (Transcendentalist philosophy) or a realist (Positivist philosophy) or whatever, they’ll also understand and be open to alternative viewpoints.
And do I think it is it useful to be a philosophical psychotherapist? For sure. Philosophical thinking in therapy can help practitioners, like myself, to locate and understand our own positions while also allowing for ambiguity, complexity and diversity surrounding issues like the enduring question of ‘God’.
With this approach we can better appreciate the crooked line that connects us to our clients and their lives. Indigo Girls were right all along.
There's more than one answer to these questions Pointing me in a crooked line And the less I seek my source for some definitive Closer I am to fine, yeah
- Indigo Girls
Biography
This post was created by Anna Fewer-Hamilton a Chartered Counselling Psychologist in County Sligo and a Psychotherapy Doctoral candidate at Dublin City University. She lectures in psychology and counselling at the Institute of Technology, Sligo and has an independent psychotherapy practice. She hopes Indigo Girls make it back to perform at Sligo Live again sometime soon.
Bibliography
Fromm, E. (1957). The Art of Loving. London. Thorsons.
Karasu, T. B. (2015). Of God and Psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 69(4), 357–360.
Mace, C. (1999). Heart and Soul: The Therapeutic Face of Philosophy. Routledge.
Indigo Girls Closer to Fine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgwM1Ky228
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