What About Christian Psychology?

by Jeannette Haley

 Remember that old saying, “The whole world is crazy except me and thee, and sometimes I wonder about thee?” Crazy means “full of cracks or flaws; unsound, crooked, mad, insane, erratic.” Today we politely describe this type of behavior as “mental illness” and place the blame for such a state on “low self-esteem,” “flawed environment,” “dysfunctional family,” or any number of other convenient scapegoats.

Through the centuries believers sought answers to perplexing problems through prayer or people who were known for their experience and wisdom. Pastors traditionally fulfilled the role of counselor to their congregations. But in recent church history we have witnessed an unholy marriage between the church and the religion of psychology.

Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, in his book The Myth of Psychotherapy, says,

“The basic ingredients of psychotherapy are religion, rhetoric, and repression.” Szasz states that while psychotherapy does not always involve repression, it does alwaysinvolve religion and rhetoric. Szasz, referring to psychotherapy as religion stated, “It is not merely a religion that pretends to be a science, it is actually a fake religion that seeks to destroy true religion.” He also warned “the implacable resolve of psychotherapy to rob religion of as much as it can, and to destroy what it cannot.”

The author of The Culture of Narcissim, Christopher Lasch, said, “Therapy constitutes an anti-religion. It is a fake religion that is ‘anti’ the true religion of the Bible.” He also says, “People today hunger not for personal salvation…but for the feeling, the momentary illusion of personal well-being, health and psychic security.” He went on to explain that as soon as religious problems were ‘medicalized’ (made into diseases), they became psychiatric problems. Therefore, problems of behavior and thought, once considered to be the concern of clergymen, were transformed into medical or ‘scientific’ problems.

What has taken place is an evil exchange,
a replacement of the word sin with sick and soul with mind.

Psychotherapy deals with the meaning of life, values and behavior. This makes it a religion in both theory and practice. Every branch of psychotherapy is religious! Any therapy that involves morals and values involves religion.

It is both fascinating and hair-raising to research the roots of modern psychology because all roads lead back to satanic origins. Franz Anton Mesmer, in 1779 announced, “There is only one illness and one healing.” His subjects engaged in telepathy, precognition and clairvoyance. (We get our word “mesmerize” from Mesmer). The fathers of modern secular psychiatry, Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Janet, and Sigmund Freud were greatly influenced by Mesmer and practiced hypnosis, psychotherapy and positive thinking.

The human potential movement developed
out of the occultic concept that there are
untapped reservoirs of human possibility and powers.

Psychotherapy, positive thinking, the human potential movement, and the mind-science religions grew from these unbiblical beliefs. While on the subject of occult origins, it should be noted that Freud, Jung and Carl Rogers were enemies of Christianity and sought to undermine it. Jung even had a spirit guide called Philemon!

There are four main approaches to treating clients in the field of psychotherapy and all four are varied and contradictory. Out of these main avenues there are over 200 different psychotherapuetic approaches! “The scientific philospher Karl Popper believed that the theories formulated by Freud and Adler, ‘though posing as sciences, had in fact more in common with primitive myths than with science; that they resembled astrology rather than astronomy.’” (Quoted from Malcolm Bowden, co-author of BREAKDOWNS ARE GOOD FOR YOU)

Is psychiatric treatment effective? NO. Studies repeatedly reveal that the success rate of non-professionals rated better than the so-called professionals.

Why, then, do so many people, including Christians, prefer to engage the services of a therapist rather than seek the counsel of God? The answer is simple.

Pride, sin and self-centeredness are
still the bottom-line cause of man’s problems.

Of course we realize that in some cases there are genuine medical (physical) causes for certain mental conditions, such as chemical imbalances or when a person’s liver is congested and toxic. In these cases the natural result is always depression. The intent of this short article is to reveal the satanic origins and nature of psychology and reveal the cause of man’s unhappiness and discontentment.

Rev. Robert J. K. Law, MB. BS., regarding patients that were sent to him by various clergy writes,

“What I saw were people who were self-centered, who had no purpose or meaning in life and who were behaving irresponsibly or sinfully. It was this irresponsible, sinful behaviour that intrigued me most. I confronted them with the fact that they were behaving sinfully and challenged them to accept that fact and to behave responsibly. I told them that it was their own fault that they were as they were. They could not help their situation, but they could help their reaction to the situation.”

“To my astonishment, the moment they accepted the truth that their bad, irresponsible behavior was their own fault, they first felt immediate relief, and then immediate healing.”

“So the person’s reaction to a situation became the most important aspect of my counseling…I traced out all the sinful paths leading from rebelling against a situation through guilt and self-pity into all the so-called ‘mental illnesses.’ I realized then that Psychiatric terms did not refer to people’s characters, but to their behavior. Those terms describe the various kinds of sinful behavior arising from self-pity. No one is an hysteric, or a schizoid or paranoid by nature. They are sinners by nature who are behaving in an hysteric, schizoid or paranoid way.”

Humanistic Psychology has invaded every facet of society including the criminal justice system. How many of us are fed up with watching our courts allowing people to get away with murder, (and other heinous crimes), under the plea of “insanity”? It rightly causes us to cry out, “just WHO is INSANE in these instances”?

Szasz says, “What is wrong with the insanity plea is that it creates an impression that it is not the person but the insanity that does something.” It is a fact that when people are not held responsible for their behavior, they tend not to be responsible.

A professor of journalism, Larry Thomas, put it well when he said, “We have fabricated physiological, psychological, and sociological causes for the woes that beset mankind. We have created a guiltless society in which people are no longer responsible for their actions. We have ignored sin and found either a medical, emotional or social phenomenon to blame for our problems.”

Because we have been sold a bill of goods that insists psychology is “scientific,” we have invited the fox into the hen house. The church has been deceived into withdrawing its ministry of counseling to those who have mental-emotional-behavioral needs. Jesus taught His disciples how to live and gave them spiritual power to live the crucified life.

The “psychology” of the day in biblical times
was called by God “the wisdom of this world.”

The Word of God stands in total opposition to the foolishness of man’s “wisdom”. God promises, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Cor. 1:19, 20) In Job 12:17 we read this wonderful scripture: He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.

Therefore, may we humbly repent for any and all involvement in foolish and evil counsels of men, giving heed to Paul’s warning in Colossians 2:4,6-10: “And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”

What more do we need?