Letters

Critique of secular psychology

Eileen Cronin

Contents - Apr 2015 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Welcome! Vocations: Australia's seminaries flourishing in 2015 - Br Barry Coldrey Designer babies: Dolce&Gabbana versus Elton John - Fr Dwight Longenecker Tu es Petrus: From John XXIII to Pope Francis: Four recent stages of Catholicism - Patrick Morgan Contemporary challenges facing Catholicism: Interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah - Élisabeth de Baudoüin Today's prophets: where are they? - Anne Lastman Our homeland is in Heaven - Audrey English Pilate's inscription on the Cross - Andrew Sholl Religious schools may teach the faith: Canada's Supreme Court - AD2000 REPORT Palliative care protects human dignity - Pope Francis EWTN's new app for smartphones and tablets - Peter Westmore Letters: The Holy See's relations with China - Francis Vrijmoed Letters: Critique of secular psychology - Eileen Cronin Letters: Put not your faith in electronic gadgets! - Anne Lastman Letters: Jesus words from the Cross - Robert Bom Letters: Mary in Scripture and history - Allan Choveaux Letters: Children's rights - Arnold Jago Books: MARY: A CATHOLIC-EVANGELICAL DEBATE, Dwight Longenecker & David Gustafson - Michael E Daniel (reviewer) Books: INSIGHTS FROM GRECO-ROMAN TIMES: A Christian Response, by Rex Dale - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: THE MASS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS, by Mike Aquilina - Paul Simmons (reviewer) Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Good Friday Reflection - Fr Raniero Cantalamessa

Once again Wanda Skowronska (AD2000, March 2015) does not disappoint.  To dismiss the works of Freud ("so last century"), Carl Jung, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May in three short sentences demonstrates the lack of intellectual rigour I have come to expect in her writing.

Instead of writing what is nothing more than a diatribe on "secular psychology", Skowronska could have showcased the work of Professor Vitz.

Also what was the relevance of the quote from Joseph Ratzinger? Yes it sometimes takes courage not to conform to current trends.  However, non-conformity is not a good in itself.

To be taken seriously the non conformist position needs argument based on sound reasoning and intellectual rigour.  We are all familiar with non conformity which is nothing more or less than reaction. In other words nonsense.

EILEEN CRONIN,
Erina, NSW

Wanda Skowronska replies ...

Eileen Cronin has evidently misunderstood the purpose of my short article. It merely reported a conference where  I met many American Catholic psychologists with whom I had a wonderful intellectual and professional rapport.

Sorry Eileen,  you missed the tone of whimsy in my comment on Freud. Yes psychology has given us valuable insights but many of its notions from last century have been discredited.

For example, Freud's  notion of the Oedipus Complex as a reflection of family life was monumentally wrong and misunderstood the Greek myth itself as Erich Fromm, Freud's friend, pointed out.

If you have not already done so, perhaps you might like to read Rudolf Allers' The Successful Error; A Critical Study Of Freudian Psychoanalysis, Richard Webster's Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin Science and Psychoanalysis and Paul Vitz's Freud's Christian Unconscious, all interesting analyses of Freud's thought.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 28 No 3 (April 2015), p. 11