Good Mood:
The New Psychology
of Overcoming Depression
CHAPTER
19
VALUES THERAPY AND
RELIGIOUS DESPAIR
A person with a traditional
Western belief in God sometimes
loses that belief because the
world of events does not square
with the traditional belief in
God the Father who rewards good
and punishes evil. This is the
story of Job - why is the good
man Job so afflicted? The other
side of the coin is found in
Psalm 73, where the Psalmist
inveighs that the wicked
flourish. The Nazi Holocaust
affected many survivors, Jewish
and non- Jewish, in this
fashion. Such tragedies can
shake a traditional Western
religious belief to the extent
that it cannot be repaired with
simple arguments that evil and
good get their just rewards in
the long run or in heaven.1
Values Therapy may be the only
cure in such a situation.
A related cause of depression
that requires Values Therapy is
"loss of meaning," as
discussed in the previous
chapter. Often this occurs when
a person implicitly has a view
of the world derived from the
Greco-Christian concept of a
world ordered by God or nature
to "serve" humankind.
If for scientific or
theological reasons a person
comes to doubt this purposive
view of the world, life may
"lose its meaning" as
occurred to Tolstoy. Today this
is commonly called
"existential
despair."
A person's psychological
structure and personal history
interact with the event that
leads to loss of meaning, both
in explaining its occurrence
and in influencing the severity
of the depression that results.
But Values Therapy focuses on
the beliefs themselves rather
than on the precipitating
event.
There are two approaches to
the good-and-evil crisis -
spiritual and secular. The
secular approach also is often
appropriate for a
loss-of-meaning crisis.
Buber's Cure for Religious
Despair
Misfortune to good people,
and the triumph of evil, causes
bitterness and then religious
despair to some religious
people. This is the theme of
Job and of Psalm 73, and it is
a subject with which Western
religious thinkers have
struggled.2 The traditional
believer experiences a loss of
faith in the concept of God the
Father who wisely rules the
world rewarding good and
punishing evil. A requirement
of an appropriate reply to this
enigma is that it remove this
suffering.
Buber's answer to the
contrast and conflict
"between the horrible
enigma of the happiness of the
wicked and [the]
suffering" of the author
of Psalm 73 is that the
sufferer must become "pure
in heart."
The man who is pure in
heart, I said, experiences that
God is good to him. He does not
experience it as a consequence
of the purification of his
heart, but because only as one
who is pure in heart is he able
to come to the sanctuaries.
This does not mean the Temple
precincts in Jerusalem, but the
sphere of God's holiness, the
holy mysteries of God. Only to
him who draws near to these is
the true meaning of the
conflict revealed.3
But what does Buber mean
by
"purification?"
Laymen - and even other
theologians, I suppose -
have difficulty in
understanding theological
writings because they are
couched in special
theological language and
concepts. Hence we often
conclude - perhaps
correctly - that
theological writing is
gibberish. But elucidation
of theological writings can
sometimes reveal great
truths, though perhaps
stated only obliquely. I
believe this to be the case
with Buber's interpretation
of Psalm 73.
"Purification"
clearly does not mean
"moral
purification" to
Buber. He tells us that the
Psalmist found that
"to wash his hands in
innocence" did not
purify his heart.
As I understand Buber,
to purify one's heart is to
turn inward and to seek
inner peace. This inner
peace Buber identifies
with, and labels as,
"God," though it
could just as well be
called "Feeling
X" or "Experience
X." And the quest for
inner peace will almost
inevitably produce inner
peace. "To seek God is
to have found him" in
the words of one sage. Or
in Buber's words, "The
man who struggles for God
is near Him even when he
imagines that he is driven
far from God."4
How may one achieve the
purification of inner
peace? For Buber, prayer
certainly was an important
element, "prayer"
here meaning the reading or
saying or thinking
expressions of such
sentiments as awe at life
and the universe, and
gratitude for them, though
of course there are also
many other sorts of prayer.
For some other people,
however, a similar inner
peace and purification can
be achieved by systematic
breathing and relaxation,
concentration exercises,
immersion in nature,
meditation, or other
procedures. A combination
of these methods - all of
which are related
psychologically and
physiologically - can be
particularly efficacious.
But why
"purification?"
It is common to identify
experiences of awe and
wonder and inner peace with
the term "God,"
and hence Feeling X has a
connection to God. But how
does
"purification"
fit in?
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