Page 89 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 10

Comment to

“Conscience as the major Dr. Peter Milnes
was
the
son
factor in client‘s inherent of missionary
parents and was
worth formation in born on an Ab-

Christian approach to original Missi-
on in Western
psychotherapy” Australia. After
qualifying and
practising as a
teacher, Peter and his wife Genevieve ser-
This is a welcome investigation into an area that ved in Brazil for eight years as missionaries.
is “little studied in psychology and psychothe- Since 2000, Peter has been a co-director of
rapy.” (p.1) Vyacheslav’s desire to integrate the
concept of “conscience” into Christian thought a private counselling clinic, Psychology Au-
stralia, as well as carrying a personal client
and teaching is commendable because of this
is a theological theme that is developed in the load as a Psychotherapist.
Scriptures. To some modern detractors a “Chri-
stian conscience” is just an over-developed re-
sult of “hell-fire and brimstone fear” and a way
to “guilt” people in order to establish control sequent feeling of lacking attachment to others.
over them. To many Christians, conscience is a In contrast, Andersen’s (2016:47-8) investiga-
guide to life. So, Vyacheslav has provided a wor- tion into The Dynamics of Shame in the Eden
thy foundational article. Narrative focused attention on the nature of
shame as a “complex phenomenon with four di-
Vyacheslav’s approach to this topic is informed mensions – anticipatory shame, public disgrace,
by Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy and Längle’s acute shame and chronic shame”. Shame “con-
theory of existential analysis which both lead to cerns how I am regarded as a person by others”
the conclusion that “the subject of conscience (Andersen, 2016:48) and is more aligned with
is a deeply intimate one for any person. When feelings of alienation from others. Andersen
the clients come to us with the issues of guilt (2017) argued that in the Edenic Fall, humans
and shame, when they feel that they do not have ruptured their attachment to God and this has
the right to desire”. (Vyacheslav, p.3). Existenti- resulted in a loss of attachment with others.
al Analysis uses “the subject of conscience as a While the difference between shame and guilt
theme of finding oneself, one’s own thing, ma- may appear to be small, it has prompted Hofste-
nifested in limitation.” (Vyacheslav, p.3). In my de (2015) to observe that cultural responses to
view, this inward looking analysis of conscience transgression range from “collectivist” shame-
has a greater relationship with the concept of based cultures to “individualist” guilt-based
“guilt - wholeness” than it does with the equally cultures. In the end, both shame and guilt, and
powerful element of “shame – attachment”. For their opposites in attachment and wholeness,
example, in Transactional Analysis, guilt is seen are connected to our relationship with others.
as the result of negative parental introjects that Let me take an example of how our interaction
remain within the Child Ego state and is integral with society affects our “conscience”. There was
to the formation of a “lifescript”. Guilt is highly a time when slavery was widespread and even
familial - things that could have been normal in practised by Christian churchgoers. I would
one family are condoned or even encouraged in imagine that there would be some Christians
another. Eventually, guilt is connected with at- who would have felt guilty, listened to their
tachment to others. The internalization of guilt conscience and questioned this practice. They
then produces intrapsychic conflict and a sub- may have even voiced it within their religious

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