IF THE SHOE FITS . . .

A Catholic Application of Adlerian Psychology

 

Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, shows a refreshingly logical and common-sense approach to the mysteries of human behavior. I studied Adler’s work long before I became a Catholic, and the more I learned about the Church’s teachings, the more I found myself saying “Why, that’s a very Adlerian way of looking at things!”

Last month, my wife discovered that Adler was a Catholic; at that point I began looking at things the right way round, saying “Why, that’s very Catholic of old Alfred, isn’t it?”

Though I’ve studied psychology, I of course have no credentials along those lines, so please take what I say with a grain of salt . . . but do, at least, think about it.

Last week, while thinking about this editorial, among the terms I looked up were “psychopath” and “sociopath.” Oddly enough, their definitions are strikingly similar; the major differences lie in what the analyst involved feels is the root of mental disorders — either genetic/chemical or societal influences.

In fact, from what I can see from a quick overview of the literature, most mental disorders can be pegged somewhere on one psycho-/sociopath scale, placed according to a) which symptoms are observed and b) their severity. Now, this is really a rather striking observation: no matter what names we give them, aberrant behaviors can be classed on the same scale according to their degrees of deviance from the rational norm.

In other words, all the plethora of mental illnesses would appear to be not only related but are simply varying degrees of the same sickness. Keep that thought in mind; we’ll come back to it.

As I have intimated before — and I believe the Church and Adler are both right in this — anything we do (and this includes our behavioral responses) is the result of our conscious choice. The phrase “freedom of choice” extends to all but a few of the most instinctive levels; we have, in any given circumstance, the ability to choose a response, a split second in which we decide whether or not to do the wrong thing.