Psychiatry and Confession

Light on the Talking Cure of Psychoanalysis

By

John A. O'Brien, Ph.D., LL.D.

The University of Notre Dame

THE PAULIST PRESS

401 WEST 59TH STREET

NEW YORK 19, N. Y.

Confession makes not only for a happy life
but for a better one as well



Nihil Obstat:

T. E. DILLON,

Censor Librorum.

Imprimatur:

æ JOHN F. NOLL, D.D.,

Bishop o.f Fort Wayne.

lune 19, 1948.

COPYRIGHT, 1948, BY

THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. -PAUL THE APOSTLE IN

THE STATE OF NEW YORK

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED IN THE u. s. A.

BY THE PAULIST PItESS, NEW YORK 19, N. Y.



Psychiatry and Confession

"LOVE is in the air today," runs a song of perennial
popularity. It might be paraphrased to run,

"Psychoanalysis and psychiatry are in the air today."
No longer are they the exclusive terrain of the esoteric
rich, drawing their patients from Park Avenue. They
are of interest to the inhabitants of Sauk Center and

their techniques, spread on the pages of Sunday sup­
plements, are being gossiped about in every home.
Their findings supply material for plots in novels, short
stories, and for dramas made into movies and broadcast
over the air.

Since more than half the sickness today is recog­
nized as chiefly mental, the science of mental hygiene
is looming up large in modern life. The multiplying
of tensions from the increasing complexity of congested
urban life, the growth of fears and phobias from world
wars and the dreads of still more terrible conflicts

are causing millions to flock to medical offices of vari­
ous kinds to seek relief. Psychasthenia is the pre­
vailing malaise of our day. Mankind stands in des­

perate need of whatever help mental hygiene can

provide.

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Scientific research in this important field has thrown

new light upon the origin of many of the fears, phobias

and dreads, upon the neuroses and the psychoses which

afflict people today.. Like leeches, they fasten them­

selves upon us, sucking our courage and vigor and

crippling us with nameless fears. The battle against
these maladies has brought forth new techniques and

new methods of treatment which have achieved some

valuable results. Society owes a great debt to the

pioneers who blazed new trails in this delicate and

difficult field.

Dr. T. V. �Ioore's Influence

In 1916 we had the privilege of doing graduate
work with Dr. Thomas Verner Moore, O.S.B., in a

clinical course in psychiatry at St. Elizabeth's Hos­

pital in Washington. Dr. Moore, who had then but

recently returned from research work in Germany,
was the first priest psychiatrist in America. He has

exercised an enormous influence by his teaching and

. writings in deepening the appreciation of the American

people for the new findings of psychiatry and psycho­

analysis. We learned from him the important lesson

of distinguishing the established facts and principles
from the frills, the unsubstantiated guesses and the

exaggerations which were tending to discredit the new

science in the eyes of many people. That lesson stood

-4-



us in good stead when later we went to the University
of Illinois to complete our research for the Ph.D. in

psychology.
We stand in need of more Catholics who will de­

vote themselves to psychiatry as a consecrated pro­
fession in which they will be able to render valuable
service to the mind and body as well as to the moral
health of patients. Our representation in this field
is indeed meager. We would direct the gaze of many
of our gifted youth, aspiring to the practice of med­

icine, to the specialty of psychiatry as the domain
where they are most needed and where they will
render the greatest service.

I

mSTORY

Psychoanalysis is the newest branch or division of

psychiatry. It is also the one which is the most mis-
.

understood. It stems largely from the writings of

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, who is gen­
erally regarded as the founder of psychoanalysis.
Before presenting in detail the historic case from which
the new science developed, let us say a brief word
about Freud, who has long been a subject of discus­
sion and controversy among the workers in this field.

Born in 1859 in Freiburg, Moravia, of Jewish par­
ents, Freud studied medicine at the University of

-5-



Vienna and received his M.D. in 1881. He began in

1883 as a privatdocent and studied in Paris under

Charcot from 1885 to 1886. From 1902 to 1938 he

was professor of neuropathology at the University of

Vienna, In 1938 he was forced to leave Vienna by
the Nazi regime and went to London, where he lived

until his death in 1939. He worked with Dr. Breuer

on the treatment of hysteria by hypnosis. Later he

developed with Dr. Breuer a method of treatment in

which he replaced hypnosis by the free association of

ideas, or the calling up of one idea by another previ­

ously linked to it. This method became the basis of

his psychoanalysis. Freud held that a complex of

repressed and forgotten impressions underlies all a.b­

normal states such as hysteria, and that the mere

disclosure of these impressions often effects a cure.

He considered infantile mental processes to be of

particular importance in later development. He de­

veloped a theory that dreams are an unconscious rep­
resentation of suppressed desires, especially those of a

sexual nature. Freud wrote numerous works OD

psychoanalysis and occasionally entered the fields of

philosophy and religion. Many authorities think that

he overstressed the role of sex and minimized the role

and power of other drives.

A Catholic will differ radically with him in philos­

ophy and religion. But such differences, radical and

profound though they be, should not obscure our vision

-6-



nor dim our appreciation of the many fresh and bril­
liant insights which he brought to the understanding
of the forces moving in the subconscious areas of our
mental life and exercising their pull upon us.

An Analogy

The fact that Freud and some of his disciples pre­
sent the phenomena of our instinctive and emotional
life against a backdrop of crude materialism, in which

spiritual and religious values are conspicuously absent,
has tended to discredit the whole science of psycho­
analysis in the eyes of many religious people. They
think of it as a ritualistic abracadabra of paganism, a

psychic regurgitation of all one's sex experiences and
memories to satisfy the curiosity of the psychoanalyst
and especially to fatten his pocketbook. It is neces­

sary to distinguish between the facts of our mental life
and the unwarranted philosophical and religious infer­
ences which some writers have drawn.

An analogy will help us here. The scientific data
on evolution were brought to the English speaking
world largely through the writings of Thomas Huxley
and to the German speaking world through those Qff
Ernst Haeckel. The agnosticism of Huxley and the
monism of Haeckel gave their writings a distinctly
anti-religious bias and caused great numbers of re­

ligious people to reject evolution, lock, stock and barrel.

-7-



So violent were the reactions against the crude mate­

rialism of many of the early exponents of evolution

that many Christian people still regard evolution as

incompatible with belief in God, in the Bible and in

the spiritual nature of man.

The simple fact, however, is that evolution is a

process. It demands a cause just as truly as direct and

immediate creation demands a cause. When the scien­

tific data of evolution are carefully studied and their

philosophical implications are properly interpreted, it

is found that evolution offers an unanswerable argu­

ment for the existence of an all-powerful Designer and

is simply God's method of creating. The scientific evi­

dence of organic evolution is so overwhelming as to

carry conviction to more than 99 per cent of the scien­

tists. We do not advance the interests of religion when

we make the rejection of established scientific evidence

a necessary condition for religious faith.

We hurt it and tend unwittingly to estrange edu­

cated people from it. Why? Because some Christian

apologists have failed to distinguish between the estab­

lished data of science, the proven facts of evolution,
and the unwarranted philosophical and religious infer­

ences which certain materialistic writer-s have drawn

from them. It is to be hoped that we shall profit by
that experience and not make the same mistake in

regard to the scientific data of man's mental life, as

disclosed by the findings of modem psychiatry.

-8-



Origin of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis seeks to relieve tensions, to dis­

solve complexes, to release strangulated emotions and
thus to restore mental calm. We can probably enable
a reader to secure the best insight into the nature of
this new science by showing how it arose. Psycho­
analysis had its origin in the discovery of the thera­

peutic effects of confessing or revealing the secret
causes of inner discords to a sympathetic auditor or
father confessor.

In 1880 a young woman, Anna O. aged twenty-one,
came into the office of her family physician, Dr. Joseph
Breuer of Vienna. She was an intelligent and refined
young woman suffering from a severe case of hysteria.
Though a man of great learning, recognized in Europe
for his scientific attainments, Dr. Breuer found the
case an exceedingly difficult one. His patient suffered
a paralysis of the right arm, disturbance of eye-move ..

ments, a loss of the power to drink, almost complete
aphasia, and states of "absence."

Briefly, Anna's story was this: She had been in
almost constant attendance at the bedside of her

father during a long illness which proved fatal. While
waiting one night for the surgeon who was coming
from Vienna to operate on her father, she fell asleep,
exhausted, with her arm hanging over the back of her
chair. When she awoke, the arm had become numb.
She could not move it or feel it. Paralysis set in.

-9-



Her visual disturbances were traced to a painful

experience in which a strong emotion was repressed.
With tears in her eyes she was sitting at the bedside

of her dying father when suddenly he asked what the

time was. Trying to suppress the tears which blinded

her and to conceal them, she raised her watch very
close to her eyes, so that the dial seemed very large
and distorted. The resultant symptoms were an ab­

normal enlargement of the objects she saw and severe

strabismus.

"If Yon Would Let �fe Talk"

After diagnosing the case as hysteria, Dr. Breuer

tried t.o remove the symptoms through hypnosis, but

with no success. Treatments by some of the most

prominent neurologists in Europe brought no better

results and the patient returned to Dr. Breuer. Noting
that the patient in her states of "absence" mumbled

strange words, Dr. Breuer hypnotized her and had her

repeat those words many times causing her to repro­
duce for him the fancies which dominated her mind

in her "absence." After relating those fancies she

would be restored for several hours to a normal

condition.

One day she said to him: "Dr. Breuer, if you would

only let me talk to you and if I could tell you how my
difficulties started, I think we could do something."
The doctor was sympathetic and encouraged her to

-10-



talk freely, unbosoming herself Di her inner discords.

They commonly had as their starting point the situation
of a young girl confined to the sick bed of her father.
She narrated not only the circumstances leading up
to the various paralyses she suffered,' but gave him
an intimate account of her life, revealing her secret
dreams, her frustrations, her repressions, She went
into matters which a doctor would not generally think.
of listening to. After such visit, wherein she simply
talked freely, she manifested an appreciable im­

provement.
When reminded that her talking was consuming

much of his valuable time, the patient would make an

appointment for another "talking" hour. She called
it the '<talking cure" and insisted upon calling on him

just to talk. Despite the tax on his time, Dr. Breuer

permitted her to return repeatedly, and sympathizing
with her emotional difficulties was rewarded by seeing
her symptoms gradually disappear. It all seemed very
strange to Dr. Breuer. He had given this woman all
sorts of medìcine. Another distinguished neurologist
had given her hot and cold baths. A third had treated
her with electricity. Now he merely listened to her
talk and she was getting well I

Why the Cure?

As Dr. Breuer pondered the significance of this

case, he found himself asking repeatedly: Why should

-11-



this woman be getting well by merely talking?

Gradually he became convinced of one fundamental

principle, namely, the importance of getting the pa­
tient to go back to the origin of the symptom and to

relive the experience with the proper emotional ex­

pression. For the strangulated emotion would thus be

released and the symptom would disappear. This con­

stitutes the basic principle underlying psychoanalysis
as well as that part of psychiatry which deals with the

removal of phobias, complexes, tics and other forms

of Lebensunmd.

Applying this principle to the case already cited,
Dr. Breuer found that Anna's inability to drink van­

ished entirely and without recurrence after the in ..

cident connected with its origin had been told in de­

tail and with a great deal of emotion. Thus Anna re­

lated that as a little girl she had an English governess
whom she greatly disliked. The governess had a little

dog which Anna abhorred. One day she saw the

governess permitting the dog to drink out of a glass.
The sight aroused in her an intense disgust which she

repressed out of conventional respect for the governess.
After giving complete expression to her disgust at the

dog's action, the patient was relieved of that phobia
and was able to drink from a glass without disturbance.

The paralysis of her arm was traced to an emo­
tional experience she suffered when she dreamed that

she saw a black snake coming out of the wall and

-12-



creeping toward the bed. She endeavored to frighten
the snake away by a motion of her right arm, only
to discover that the arm had "gone to' sleep" and that
she could not move it. Looking at the fingers of her

right hand she perceived them transformed into little

snakes. Terrified at the combination of the dream

and the anesthesia of her arm, she tried to pray but

was able to mutter only an English prayer in the

form of a nursery rhyme, presumably taught her by
her governess. She was unable to speak or to under­
stand her native tongue, which was German. Out of

this momentary limitation, her hysterical self elaborated
the conviction that she could speak only English-an
impairment which continued for one and a half years.

It was only by having her recall the scene re­

peatedly, and by explaining to her the sources of these

impairments that Anna regained her native German
and the use of her right arm. The impairment of her

right arm illustrates how a momentary incapacity was

accepted as real, and while there was no organic im­

pairment she was nevertheless unable to move it.

What a constricted circulation started was fixed by
her emotional excitement. Such is the mechanism of

hysteria which converts a psychic idea into a bodily
symptom.

The numerous cases of "shell shock" suffered by
soldiers during both World Wars illustrate the psycho­
genic character of maladies which paralyze a victim

-13-



who has experienced no physical impairment. Thus
some shell-shocked soldiers suffered the loss of vision,
though there was no injury to the ocular mechanism
at all. The impairment was of a purely psychic origin,
resulting from the conflict of motives-the desire to

obey orders to go "over the top" strugglin.g with the
desire to Iive, the deep-rooted instinct of self-preserva­
tion. The solution was sometimes found in temporary
blindness, deafness, or paralysis of the limbs-func­
tional impairment imposed upon the physiological or­
ganism by means of ideas and feelings.

The Cathartic Method

As a consequence of the success which crowned his

treatment of Anna, Dr. Breuer developed a technique
of relief for psychogenic maladies by the "talking cure"
of explanation, a variety of catharsis. The "cathartic
method" calls for the individual to unburden himself

with complete candor, to expose foci of infection buried
in repressed memories and strangulated emotions, and
effects a form of psychic housecleaning. It reflects the
conviction that every hysterical symptom embodies
some mental or emotional disturbances in the patient's
past which needs to be rationalized and liberated from
its prison in the subconscious, These experiences were
of a disagreeable nature and were never properly re­
acted to. Dr. Breuer's idea was that if the patient

-14-



could be prompted to recall the unpleasant situation

and live it over again, he would thus release the strang­
ulated emotion and the hysterical symptom would dis­

appear.

Dr. Sigmund Freud developed the cathartic method

of his older associate, Dr. Breuer, and has applied it

so universally to the treatment of cases of mental

pathology that the method is now usually associated

with his name. Convinced that all phobias, ties"

spasms, pseudo-paralyses and selective anesthesias are

situation-scars which demand that their pychic origin
be probed, Freud said: "Let us trace the hysterical

vagaries to their source in personal, intimate emo­

tionalized situations, and these in turn to whatever

motivations may lie behind them." Freud then set

forth the three principles underlying the use of the

cathartic method. First, the symptoms are not hap­
hazard or meaningless, but have a psychic cause.

Second, the origin of the symptoms is hidden from the

patient and operates underground-in the cellar of

the subconscious. Third, the reason for the suppres­
sion is that the memories were disagreeable, or at least

heavily charged with conflicting emotion which worked

havoc with normal peace of mind.

-15-



The successful results achieved by the cathartic

method furnish additional clues to an understanding of

the causes of the snarls and twists projecting them­

selves into the emotional and mental life of the in­

dividual when the memory of the circumstances lead­

ing to their formation bas faded or has been buried

deep in the subconscious.

"Hypnosis," observes Joseph Jastrow, "had shown

that the strangle-hold of these hysterical and related

impairments and distresses could be released by dis-

engaging the subconscious tentacles. The procedure
of hypnosis was uncertain and limited the relation of

physician and patient. Breuer and Freud sought and

found the effective release of subconscious secrets by

inducing their patients to' assume a passive attitude

and talk about themselves freely and intimately; this
,JIwas the talking cure or chimney sweeping, or psychic

housecleaning or catharsis. This discovery, that symp-
toms could be banished by giving free vocal play to

the affect, came upon them with the greatest surprise.
It raises an important question for later consideration:

why consciousness cures, why talking things out helps,

why confession is good for the soul."

-16-

II

APPLICATION



.J
1

Removing Neuroses

It is to be noted that the cathartic method is often

helpful in the treatment not only of pseudo-paralyses,
deprivations of function, hysterical impairment of sense
or limb, but also of compulsion neuroses-intrusive
bits of behavior, tics and habit-spasms, curious rituals,
wayward impulses or obsessive thoughts which play
havoc with the individual's behavior problems and his

peace of mind. Under this general head would come
likewise the anxiety neuroses, constant disturbing fears
and doubts and hesitations, feelings of restlessness and

frustration, marked ennui, losses of zest, exhaustion
states and panicky attitudes which project themselves
at times in pronounced bodily symptoms.

All these interfere with the maintenance of a serene

outlook, with normal absorption in one's work and
throw him out of adjustment to the tasks of daily
life. Neuroses such as these twist the cogs in the

wheels of life and throw them out of gear. If the

complicated machinery of the psychosomatic personal­
ity is to function smoothly, these irritants, these foci

'

of friction must be eliminated. Otherwise the ab­

normality becomes more pronounced and a psychic
cripple results.

In the cathartic method of dealing with such psychic
irritants, there is perceptible, points out jastrow, "the

-17-



first stage of the protracted
confessional technique

which today supports the profession of psychoanalysts.

This free-lance probing became in Freud's
hands a

divining-rod, and eventually uncovered
the under­

ground currents that issued in
nervous handicaps and

the conflicts behind them-what by way of anticipa­

tion may at once be
called the 'complex.' Once dis­

covered, its very acknowledgment,
the recognition of

the need of its dissolution, its abreaction by such skill

of persuasion and authority as the analyst possessed,

determined the course of release, and paved the way for

the patient's readaptation to his
circumstance and the

attainment of normality-all this potentially for normal

as well as neurotic case-histories."

The motto which might well be carved over the

door of every psychoanalyst is: "All hope
of reticence

abandon, ye who enter here."
For unless the patient

lays bare the secret causes of the disturbance,
and nar­

rates frankly the circumstances leading
to the com­

plex, there can be no effective treatment,
no release

of the congested emotion. The discovery
of the real

cause of the psychosis, often buried deep in the
sub­

conscious memory, and its removal by skillful
thera­

peutic treatment is as necessary
for mental health as

the discovery of carcinoma and its
eradication is for

physical health .. It should be added, however,
that

psychoanalytìc treatment offers no exemption
from the

law of modesty in thought, word and deed.

--18-



III

CONFESSION-THE BEST CATHARSIS

,From what has been said it is evident, first, that
it was the unbosoming or confessing of certain un­
pleasant experiences in the past by his patient that
revealed to Dr. Breuer the rich therapeutic effects of
the cathartic method, the housecleaning of the soul.
Psychoanalysis may be said to be but the confessional
technique developed by the psychiatrist in the prob­
ing of psychic disturbances and in effecting their re­
moval. Secondly, it is evident that the ideal agency
for obtaining such disclosures with complete candor
is the confessional of the Catholic Church. Here the
patient is conscious that his revelation is protected by
an inviolable secrecy. He knows that the confessor
would gladly sacrifice his life rather than disclose one
single word whispered in the confessional.

Furthermore, he is free to enjoy a complete anonym­
ity by going to a confessional where both confessor
and penitent are perfect strangers. Every human con ..
sideration calculated to prove helpful to the penitent
in unbosoming himself of his troubles, sins and dis­
turbances will be found in the regulations governing
the administration of the sacrament of confession.

In addition, there are spiritual considerations which
no psychoanalyst can provide. There is the religious
faith which reminds the penitent that he is confessing

-19-



to God, and that the confessor is acting merely as the

human ambassador of the Most High, extending mercy

and forgiveness in His name. He realizes that the

concealment of a grievous misdeed would not only

nullify the confession but would add to the penitent's

soul the guilt of sacrilege. That is why the confes­

sional in the humblest Catholic Church in the world

is a more efficacious agency for a complete catharsis

than the office of any psychoanalyst, no matter how

many technicians it may have and no
matter how per­

suasive they may be in pleading for a frank dislodg­

ment of the disagreeable and painful out of the buried

past.

Increasing Recognition

This is the conviction not only of those who have

had actual experience of the sacrament, such as priests

and penitents, but it is also the conclusion reached

by those outside the Church who have made careful

observations on the effects of the confessional upon the

lives of those who frequent it.

Thus the Rev. Dr. Harry E. Fosdick, pastor of

the Riverside Baptist Church of New York, speaking

before more than 1,000 ministers at the annual meet­

ing of the Greater New York Federation of Churches,

strongly urged the restoration of the confessional to

Protestant churches. "We Protestants are losing

-20-



more," he said, "than we have any business to lose

by not coming in closer contact with the individual.
When a Catholic would take his mental troubles to his

priest, the Protestant would go to a psychoanalyst or
like specialist, and the church would gain nothing in

experience. . .. The confessional, which Protestantism
throws out the door, is coming back through the win­

dow, in utterly new forms, to be sure, with new methods
and with an entirely new intellectual explanation, ap­
propriate to the Protestant churches but motivated by
a real determination to help meet the inward problems
of individuals.

"Clergymen are giving different names to this form
of activity, such as 'trouble clinics,' 'personal confer­
ences on spiritual problems,' 'the Protestant confes­
sional.' The name makes little difference. What does

matter is the renewed awareness in the churches that

they are in danger of surrendering to the psycho­
analyst that vast field of human needs where the con­
fession of sin and spiritual misery is met with sympa­
thetic and intelligent treatment. TO' be sure, a wise
minister will work with a psychiatrist, not without one,
but if the churches substitute any other kind of suc­

cess for the successful handling of the spiritual aspects
of individual problems, they will be vacating their most
obvious functions."

1

1 Literary Digest, Dec. 17, 1927, p. 2.

-21-



Psychiatrists Pay Tribute

In recent years not only religious leaders but pro­

fessional psychiatrists have come to recognize more

clearly and with increasing appreciation the whole­

some and healing influence which the confessional exer­

cises upon the mental health of the
hundreds of mil­

lions of people who find in it reIief and encourage­

ment. Thus such noted psychiatrists as Groves and

Blanchard, in their recent volume Dn Mental Hygiene,

pay the following high tribute to the therapeutic value

of the confessional:

"The Roman Catholic Church's provision for oral

confession to the priest has a moral and therapeutic

value which Protestant churches generally lack. The

psychiatrist is frequently called upon to act the role

of priest, listening to revelations of guilt that the pa­

tient dare not share with any one except when pro­

tected by the professional code of secrecy, and assur­

ing the patient that the guilt need not longer be car­

ried as a hidden burden. Protestantism needs to de­

velop a better method of dealing with personal guilt

than public confession of general sinfulness. There

is a craving to particularize the guilt to get definitely

rid of the burden, and this impulse at present is ade­

quately recognized only by the Roman Catholic con­

fession."

That is wby so comparatively few Catholics need

-22-



the services of a psychiatrist. Thus the eminent

psychiatrist, C. G. Jung, speaking from the experience
of a busy professional life says: "During the past
thirty years, people from all the civilized countries of
the earth have consulted me. I have treated many
hundreds of patients, the larger number being Protes­

tants, a smaller number Jews, and not more than five
or six believing Catholics. Among all my patients in
the second half of life--that is to say, over thirty­
five-there has not been one whose problem in the
last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook
on life. It is safe to say that everyone of them fell

m because he had lost that which the living religions
of every age have given to their followers, and none
of them has been really healed who did not regain his

religious outlook."
2

'While the mere disclosure of sin to a sympathetic
friend has a therapeutic value, confession in the Cath­
olic Church has a far greater and more beneficial effect
becaus.e it not only permits the confession of sins but

gives to the penitent that which he craves above all
else--the assurance of God's pardon. It is this latter
element which, far more than the former, restores peace
and tranquillity to the troubled soul. Why should he

worry, when because of his sorrow and purpose of

amendment he has received through the ambassador of
2 Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Harcourt, Brace & Co., N. V.,

1933, p. 264.

-23-



God the pardon of the Most High? There is a crav­

ing, it is true, to confess one's guilt. But the far

deeper and more insistent craving is for the remission

of the guilt. This is the real reason why the confes­

sional exercises such a marvelous influence upon the

mental health of the hundreds of millions of people

who use it.

An Important Difference

This fact was recognized and frankly acknowledged

by the late Shailer Matthews, Dean of the Divinity

School at Chicago University. Referring to the move­

ment among Protestants to restore the confessional, the

Dean remarked to the writer: "Protestants will derive

some value from talking over their troubles and their

sins with a minister in a trouble clinic or Protestant

confessional. It is the relief which comes from sharing

one's troubles with another. But they will never derive

the distinctive relief which the Catholic penitent se­

cures, namely, the relief which comes only from the

feeling that the sins are actually forgiven and the

guilt actually removed. That flows from the Catholic

doctrine concerning the power of the priest to forgive
sins from the soul of a contrite penitent ..

"

Similar too is the observation made by Dr" John
Rathbone Oliver, a noted psychiatrist, in commenting
on the marked trend among Protestant leaders to re­

store the confessional because of its therapeutic value."
S Scribner's, July, 1930.

-24-



"Our Protestant brothers," he says, "are doing some­

thing of the same kind. But it is an utter misunder­

standing of the situation to imagine that the Protestant
can ever undo the damage of the 'outlawing of the con­
fessional.' It is possible that a Presbyterian or a
Methodist pastor might set up in his church a so-called
'confessional box'; he might sit on one side of it behind
the grating, and might listen to the outpourings of the
sins and troubles of some members of his congregation.
No doubt the person who there poured out his soul

might be benefited by the procedure; might get helpful
advice and go away feeling happier. But all the con­
fessional boxes in the world could nnt bring back to the
Protestant bodies the one thing that really matters­
the one thing that is more important than confession­
than all the confessional boxes in the world-the thing
we Catholics call 'absolution.'

"It is the 'absolution' that gives to the confessional
its great power to help and to heal. It is the Sacra­
ment of Penance, in which by the 'power that our
Lord Jesus Christ has left upon earth to absolve all sin­
ners who truly repent and believe in Him,' the priest,
acting in Christ's name and by His authority, 'absolves
from sin'-in which he, as it were, pours upon the head
of the penitent the precious blood that was shed upon
the cross, in the one perfect sacrifice, oblation and satis­
faction for the sins of the whole world. And where

there is no priesthood, there is no absolving priest;
-25-



where there is no absolving priest there is no absolute

blotting out of all past sin, no complete restoration to

God's grace and to complete forgiveness. To the

Catholic, every confession and absolution is a fresh

start. He begins his Christian life allover again.
All past guilt is wiped out. And fresh grace is given
him to start on the road of life once more."

In Great Britain, Dr. Martensen, a distinguished
Protestant theologian, pays tribute to the confessional

not only because it ministers directly to the social wel­

fare by insisting upon truth, honesty, and justice, and

upon restitution when the latter is violated, but also

because it ministers directly to the hunger of the in­

dividual soul for personal spiritual regeneration.

"Absolution," he says, "in the name of the Father and

of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, derived from the full

power of binding and loosing which the Church has

inherited from the Apostles is not unconditional, but

depends on the same condition on which the gospel
itself adjudges the forgiveness of sins, namely, change
of heart and faith....

"It cannot easily be denied that confession meets

a deep need of human nature. There is a great psycho­

logical truth in the saying of Pascal, that a man often

attains for the first time a true sense of sin, and a true

stayedness in his good purpose, when he confesses his

sins to his fellow man, as well as to God. Catholicism

has often been commended because by confession it

-26-



affords an opportunity of depositing the confession of
his sins in the breast of another man, where it remains

kept under the seal of the most sacred secrecy, and
whence the consolation of the forgiveness of sins is
given him in the very name of the Lord."

,

Restoring Peace of Mind

Every confessor can recall numerous instances
where the relief experienced by the penitent has been
indeed remarkable. Penitents at times enter the con­

fessional so visibly disturbed in mind that their voices

quaver and break, sighs of anguish escape them, and
tears even course down their faces. After their con­

fession is completed, and they receive the absolution
of God's ambassador, and hear from him words of
counsel and encouragement to rise and strive again with
renewed courage and faith in God's abiding help, they
leave the confessional enjoying a calmness, a peace of

mind, and a courage that has transformed them into
new men and new women.

Familiar as such occurrences are to priests and to
members of the Catholic laity, it is interesting to note
that even non-Catholics have observed the visible ef­

fects of the confessional upon people tortured with
the guilt of grievous sin. Thus Dr. John Rathbone

-Oliver, who was kneeling in a Catholic church on
4 Christian Dogmatics, p. 443 ff.·

-27-



Saturday afternoon when confessions were being heard:
narrates the following striking instance of such a

transformation:

"A few weeks ago, I was kneeling at the back of

such a church. In front of me there knelt a girl of

perhaps sixteen or less. She was tense-tormented,

apparently. She twisted about; she could not keep
still. The glimpse that I caught of her showed me the

face of a person in great mental distress. I could not

take my eyes from her. She seemed anxiety per­
sonified. A few moments later, she got up, and went

into the confessional. I also got up, from my knees,

and walked up to the high altar to kneel before the

Blessed Sacrament. Time passed quickly there. Then

some one pushed by me-and knelt down on the altar

steps, just a few feet away. It was the same girl. But

I have never seen such a change in any human being.

All her tenseness was gone; the lines of worry had been

smoothed from her face. No signs of mental torment

now; no anxiety-only perfect relaxation-peace­

and, apparently, a great happiness-for her lips were

parted in a smile. If I, as a psychiatrist, could have

done for that girl in three hours what had been ac­

complished in fifteen minutes, I should have thought

myself a clever physician indeed.
"I watched her make the sign of the cross, from fore­

head to breast, from shoulder to shoulder, with a hand

that was steady, co-ordinated, efficient, exact. Then she

-28-



folded her arms on her breast, and lifted her face to the

Tabernacle. That face still bore traces of dried tears;
but the eyes were bright-unclouded. I left her there­

with a prayer of thanksgiving-left her there at peace
with man-and, if I may say so without irreverence-at

home with her God.
e(

'All magie-all superstition-all emotional self­

hypnosis,' my materialistic friends may say. Well, let

them say so as often as they please. I shall begin to

listen to them when their own particular type of magic
and hypnosis gets the same results.:"

In a Nutshell

To sum up: Whatever light psychiatry and psycho­

analysis can throw upon the causes of mental ills is to

be welcomed with eagerness and gratitude. Their find­

ings offer relief in many cases. The results come slowly
as a rule and only after long tedious sessions over

considerable periods of time. We need more Catholics

to devote themselves to psychiatry as a consecrated life

work. It has a close kinship with morality and religion.
While acknowledging cheerfully the many valuable

therapeutic treatments worked out by experts in mental

hygiene, we point to the confessional as offering a relief

from the sense of guilt which surpasses any medicine

or remedy developed by the psychiatrist or the psycho-
IS Ibid. p. 66.

-29-



analyst. For the removal of guilt and all the brood of

fears, worries, dreads and anxieties stemming from it,

confession is the unfailing remedy. A good and sincere

confession begets a peace of mind and a serene joy

which nothing else in the world can giv-e. Psychiatrists

frankly acknowledge that it accomplishes marvelous

results with a sureness and a speed which they might

well envy.

Catholics should thank God for this wonderful gift

and make generous use of it. Great as is its influence

in restoring peace of mind, that is only incidental to its

primary and spiritual effect-the actual remission of

sin from a contrite and humble soul. Confession de­

mands as a necessary condition for its validity, sorrow

for sin and the determination to avoid the sin in the

future. That firm purpose of amendment is best demon­

strated by the keeping of one's resolution to avoid sin

and to grow in holiness-in the love of God and in the

service of our neighbor. The sacrament of God's mercy

makes therefore not only for a happy life but for a

better one as well.

-30-



REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING

Brill, A. A., M.D. Fundamental Conceptions of Psycho­
analysis. Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, 1921.

Freud, Sigmund. A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis.
Bow and Liveright, Inc., New York, 1920.

Groves, K R., and Blanchard, Phyllis. Introduction to
Mental Hygiene. Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1930.

Jastrow, Joseph. The House That Freud Built. Greenberg
Publishers, New York, 1932.

McCarthy, Raphael C., S.]. Safeguarding Mental Health.
Bruce Publishing Co., New York, 1937.

Moore, Dam Thomas Verner, O.S.B. Dynamic Psychology.
J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1924.

---Personal Mental Hygiene. Grune and Stratton, New
York, 1945.

---The Driving Forces oj Human Nature. Grune and
Stratton, New York, 1948.

Strecker, E. A., M.D. Fundamentals of Psychiatry. J. B.
Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1942.

Tridon, Andre. Psychoanalysis-Its History, Theory and
Practice. Es W. Huebsch, New York, 1919.

Walsh, James J., M.D. Religion and Health. Little, Brown
and Co., Boston, 1920.

White, Wm. A., M.D. Mechanisms of Character Formation.
Macmillan Co., New York, 1926.

-31-



 



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