Page 105 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 12

ligions also help me to consider the power that
the religious beliefs of my patients have, when it
comes to favor or hinder the therapeutic process
and their personal growing. Just as the Apostle
Paul did many times is important that the pro-
fessionals that work in mental health and per-
sonal development issues know how to dialogue
with people of other faiths and beliefs, which
happens to be in line with the APA Multicul-
tural Guidelines (2017) urging professionals to
be competent in diversity issues, including the
religious-spiritual aspect.

Charles Zeiders (USA) Dr. Charles

How does Christian Zeiders is a
Clinical & Fo-
faith help my work as a rensic Psycho-

psychologist? logist. He is TS
Eliot Lecturer
for Humani-
ties & Spiritu-
How does Christian faith help my work as a psy- al Psychology
chologist? What an intriguing question. Most at Reformed
recently my faith has helped me to treat coura- Episcopal Se-
geous Christian patients who want to shed nar- minary, USA. His latest book is Faith,
cissistic traits. One Christian scholar in analysis Forensics, and Firearms, published by
for relational issues alerted me to the fact that Chiron Publications.
the psychodynamics of narcissistic defenses are
implicit in the Story of the Fall. Upon eating the
forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve incurred an in-
jury to their basic sense of adequacy.
pher on the collapse of the American persona-
“…Their eyes were opened, and they suddenly lity. In the last century he penned The Culture
fel shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig of Narcissism—a text which became an instant
leaves together to cover their nakedness.” Ge- classic. Lasch asserted that the old American
nesis 3: 7 character was that of a puritanical ascetic—one
These patients, whom I treat in my in my prac- who sought a sanctified life through hard work
tice in the United States, are conscientious to and service to others. But the new American
work on their characterological pride. They character, Lasch lamented, aspired to secular
are not full-blown narcissists, but Catholic and salvation through self-glorification, verified by
Protestant patients concerned to abandon nar- the envious awe of admirers.
cissistic defenses and self-aggrandizing relatio- Coeval with renewed appreciation of Lasch,
nal styles. is the sitting President of the United States, a
Two trends account for this clinical develop- leader who regularly generates pompous, bom-
ment: the impact of the work of Christopher bastic statements--proud assertions that he
Lasch on American Christians, and the Presi- knows more than his generals, his diplomates,
dency of Donald J. Trump. his climatologists, his economists, etc. To many
Lasch was America’s foremost philoso- American Christians, President Trump seems

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