Page 17 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 16
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cupation with enhancing self-esteem, and          remediation of the false self and the disco-
             instead she recommends attending to out-          very of the true self are, likewise, brought
             ward experiences and fulfilling one’s aims        about  ultimately  through  divine  grace,
             in  life,  striving  to  meet  self-determined    though God does work within the psycho-
             goals; it’s good to pursue behaviors and vir-     social order.
             tues that do not yet feel authentic to one-       Another serious flaw that stems from ejec-
             self, so long as the desire to change in these    ting  God  is  that  the  secular  perspective
             ways is authentic.                                purports  that  the  final  goals  of  true  self-
             Lastly, Harter (2012) recommends mindful-         understanding are to enjoy experiences of
             ness, which she describes as “living in the       self, other, and engaging in culture. But the-
             moment” but not “for the moment,” atten-          se are subordinate goals in a Christian per-
             ding to the world you live in so that you can     spective, where these goals are a means of
             make the most out of the present moment           growing more aware of God and receptive
             instead of being pent up in the past or fu-       of his love.
             ture.                                             In my book, I offer several more examples
             There’s a lot to like and appreciate about        of how the secular perspective falls short,
             what  Winnicott  and  Harter  say.  Their  re-    but despite the significant lacuna in their
             search contributes valuable insight into the      theories about the ethical and spiritual or-
             false self and true self, particularly in terms   ders of life, their attention to the develop-
             of human development.                             mental  and  social  aspects  of  the  self  has
             However, neither Winnicott nor Harter in-         yielded important insights that a substan-
             cluded God or the spiritual realm in their        tial psychology of the self should not omit.
             thinking  about  these  things,  except  to
             speak dismissively. One’s biology, psycholo-      A  Christian  Perspective:  The  Self,  False
             gy, social life, and even morality are impor-     Self, True Self, and Interventions
             tant, but not any supposedly divine source        Harter,  Winnicott,  Merton,  Kierkegaard,
             behind our existence. For Winnicott (1986),       Luther,  and  Augustine  agree  that  self-re-
             God  is  merely  a  projection  of  our  innate   flection is not only an essential aspect of
             moral sense. And while Harter (2012) ap-          our life as human beings, but one that can
             provingly quotes Buddhist scholars, recom-        make or break us. Self-consciousness enab-
             mending meditation and mindfulness, she           les us to know ourselves, to know ourselves
             admits these practices can be stripped of         in relation to others, and to be shaped by
             their  “religious  trappings”  without  losing    that knowledge, for either good or bad.
             their effectiveness.                              No one shows that more perceptively than
             That Winnicott and Harter exclude God and         psychologists  like  Winnicott  and  Harter—
             the spiritual realm from their discourse is       when it comes to the developmental, psy-
             not only impermissible in a Christian per-        chological,  and  sociological  levels.  But  as
             spective  but  crippling  to  their  theory  of   Scripture  reveals,  there  is  a  deeper  spiri-
             health. While they rightly discern the im-        tual level that is more fundamental and si-
             portance of the psychosocial order, by ma-        gnificant. The ability to know ourselves, or
             king it primary they end up missing the real      self-consciousness, is primarily given to us
             problem and its solution.                         so that we can know ourselves in relation
             False  self-understanding  is  due  to            to God. The self is not merely an individual
             humanity’s  fallen  condition,  which  is  fun-   or social construct, but a gift from God to
             damentally a moral and spiritual issue. The       enable relationship with God.
                                                               God  made  us  capable  for  self-understan-




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