Page 48 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Church Traditions for a Christian Psychology

authentic freedom but not an absolute freedom.
Catholic psychology is a moral psychology, a
psychology of conscience.
“Conscience is the most secret core and sanc-
tuary of a man. There he is alone with God,
Whose voice echoes in his depths” (Gaudium et
spes, n. 16). Conscience is another core compo-
nent of the structure of the person: The person
is in fact conscience; and if we do not grasp this
central factor of conscience it is impossible to
examine or discuss human development. The
conscience provides the basis for the definiti-
ve structure and defines me as that unique and Keith A. Houde, PhD, is Associate
unrepeatable self or I. (Wojtyla, 1972/1984a, pp. Professor of Psychology and Chair
90-91; cf. Wojtyła, 1969/1979, p. 252) of the Department of Psychology at
The very structure of inner life at the core of Ave Maria University in southwest
the human person thus consists of a profound Florida, USA. He previously wor-
link between will and conscience, between free- ked for over 20 years as Clinical
dom and truth: “Psychology…the science of the Psychologist within a Veterans Af-
soul, endeavors to lay bare the structure and fairs Medical Center in Maine in
the foundation of man’s inner life…The most the areas of posttraumatic stress
significant characteristics of that inner life are disorder and clinical health psy-
the sense of truth and the sense of freedom” chology, and as the Psychology
(Wojtyła, 1960/1981, pp. 114-115). Wojtyła Training Director for a predoc-
repeatedly speaks of “the fundamental depen- toral internship and postdoctoral
dence of freedom upon truth” (John Paul II, fellowship program. His primary
1993, n. 34): “Freedom of the will is possible scholarly interest is the theological
only if it rests on truth in cognition….For it is anthropology and philosophical
a man’s duty to choose the true good” (Wojtyła, psychology of Karol Wojtyła/Pope
1960/1981, p. 119). John Paul II and its implications
for a Catholic psychology of per-
Person and Act sons.
Catholic psychology is a sacramental psycho- Keith.Houde@avemaria.edu
logy (in an informal sense of the word) in its
understanding that the body is the sacrament of Human behavior is personal, revealing the
the person, that the personal body is the “visible person. This new and profound emphasis on
sign” of the “hidden reality” of the person (cf. the exteriority of “human praxis or behavior,”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 774). This along with the interiority of “consciousness of
is most evident in the relationship between per- the body,” serves to further reveal the personal
son and act: “For us, action reveals the person, structure of the unity of body and soul (John
and we look at the person through his action” Paul II, 1984/2006, 7:1). It also sheds light on
(Wojtyła, 1969/1979, p. 11). the reality of the human person as a unity of
“The structure of the person” manifests itself in (ontic) substance and (moral) relation (Wojtyła,
the unified factual experience of the person in 1974/2013, p. 283): “The person, including the
action (Wojtyła, 1969/1979, p. 180). “The struc- body, is completely entrusted to himself, and it
ture of this body is such that it permits him to is in the unity of body and soul that the person
be the author of genuinely human activity. In is the subject of his own moral acts” (John Paul
this activity, the body expresses the person” II, 1993, n. 48). Metaphysics and morality meet,
(John Paul II, 1984/2006, 7:2) ontology and ethics unite, in the acting person.

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