Psychology and Moral Problems
by John W. Stafford, C.S.V., Ph.D.
There is today a very real interest in a very old subject, psychology. That is reasonable, for, whatever psychology is and however it may be defined, it deals with man himself; and all of us are interested in ourselves. The subject "Psychology and Moral Problems" is but another example of the importance of psychology in throwing light on the problems of the whole man.
There have been in the past and still are several kinds of psychology. There is philosophical psychology, which is a study of the soul as the first principle of all the activities of the human being. It is the study of the philosophical or metaphysical structure of the human personality: how is the personality made up — of matter alone, of spirit alone, or is it a composite of matter and spirit? How is the human personality, as a reality, related to the rest of the universe of reality? What is the origin, purpose and destiny of the human personality? These and many other questions, studied by philosophical reflection on facts presented by observation, constitute the subject matter of philosophical psychology. This is the psychology of Aristotle, of St. Thomas and the Scholastics generally, and of a long and distinguished line of philosophers from before Christ to the present day. It is the study of what we are as human beings.
Real Aims of Scientific Psychology
For about 100 years there has been developing another kind of psychology. It still deals with the human personality, but not in the same sense as the philosophical psychology described above. It is perhaps best called scientific psychology. Whereas philosophical psychology is concerned more with what we ultimately are as human beings, scientific psychology studies what we do. Its subject matter is really the behavior of the human being as a human being, not the behavior of individual cells or muscles or glands or organs, but of the total individual — how we see and hear, know and remember and forget, love and hate, etc. Today scientific psychology is a very broad study, including numerous subdivisions, such as applied psychology, educational psychology, clinical psychology, abnormal psychology, physiological psychology. All of these subdivisions are studied more or less by the methods of modern science, which are basically observation and experiment plus the construction of explanations of behavior derived from observation and experiment.
We are concerned here with the relationships of this kind of psychology to moral problems. I do not at all want to imply that philosophical psychology is unimportant, in relation to moral problems. As a matter of fact, it is really impossible to have any morality at all unless one begins with the concept of the human personality as an intellectual being endowed with personal freedom — two basic conclusions of philosophical psychology. Hence, a correct philosophical approach to the problems of the human personality is necessary in a discussion on the morality of behavior. Let us say that we have that correct philosophical approach — and go on from there.
I am not going to take up specifically ethical or theological problems as such. Psychology itself, particularly scientific psychology, is not really concerned with the morality of problems, except most indirectly. I am not going to draw up a blue print for making psychologists more moral: that is not the meaning of my topic, "Psychology and Moral Problems." Perhaps a lot of them need moral guidance and conversion, just as do mathematicians, historians, philosophers, and lots of other people. The purpose here will be an investigation of the possible contributions modern, scientific psychology can make to the solution of moral problems.
Can Scientific Psychology Aid in Moral Problems?
Before I really get going, there is need for one more distinction between psychology and psychiatry. Psychology is concerned with the behavior of the human personality, normal and abnormal. Psychiatry is a medical specialty concerned with the curing of sick personalities, the rehabilitation of abnormal personalities. There is, of course, an overlap between the areas, particularly of abnormal psychology and psychiatry. Some psychiatrists know very much about the structure of the human personality, normal as well as abnormal, and sometimes know more than the psychologists. Some psychologists, in their clinical diagnosis and in their therapy, are unusually well informed about abnormal behavior, and sometimes have a surer knowledge in this area than many psychiatrists. But the principal distinction is what I have given, that a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who is professionally and legally competent to treat mentally, sick people: not only the seriously sick, such as the insane or psychotic, but other milder forms of mental abnormality that interfere with a person's ordinary functions. A psychologist usually does not treat seriously sick individuals except under close supervision of a psychiatrist. And most psychologists do not work in clinics at all, but are more concerned with the normal functioning of the human personality. I shall deal here mainly with the relation of psychology to moral problems, although much of what will be said could apply equally well to psychiatry.
Types of Maladjusted Personalities
A moral personality is an adjusted personality. Immorality of any kind is a maladjustment of the personality. Adjustment is a relative word. Anything adjusted is "just right" in relation to something else. A person whose life is not moral is not adjusted, for he is far from being "just right" in relation to God and the moral law. There are different kinds of adjustment, and hence different kinds of maladjustment — in different ways and at different levels. Ordinarily we speak of three directions of adjustment:
- adjustment to one's immediate associates, through the relationships that today are commonly called interpersonal (do we get along with our family and friends?);
- adjustment to society as a whole (do we get along with the world?);
- adjustment to God and the moral law (do we get along with God?).
And really basic to these three types of adjustment is the adjustment of the individual within himself: is everything within the personality just right? All these types of adjustment are interdependent. I am going to insist here on the unity or integrity of the human personality. A healthy personality is one that is totally healthy, that is totally adjusted. This thought was impressed upon me forcefully during military service in the course of visits to the guardhouse. The boys there were in trouble and never in just one kind of trouble. They were in the guardhouse generally for some infraction of military discipline; hence, they were in trouble with their officers, and with the Army as such. And they were always in lots of other kinds of trouble, too. They were in trouble with their wives and in-laws, if married; and if not, then with their girls. Their pay was always messed up. Their service records were either lost or misplaced or incorrectly filled out. They were in trouble with their God and their obligations of religion. They were in trouble physically. They were broke. And along with all this disorganization or maladjustment there was, in my opinion, a disorganization or maladjustment of the personality. These men neither thought straight, talked straight, nor acted straight. They were twisted personalities. One should begin helping these individuals by straightening out their personality difficulties rather than their moral problems. It may be a long, hard pull, but any attempt to straighten out the other difficulties, especially the moral, is futile unless there has been some re-education, some reorganization, of the personality itself.
Description of Properly Adjusted Personality
The adjusted personality, on the other hand, is one in which there is order. The emotions are controlled by intellect. Actions are not wildly impulsive, but orderly and meaningful. There is a plan of life, and conscious effort to follow out that plan of life. There are, of course, problems and difficulties and conflicts. The difference between maladjusted and adjusted personalities is not that the maladjusted have difficulties and the adjusted do not. Everyone has difficulties. The difference is that the adjusted know how to deal with their difficulties adequately. Even in the lives of the best of men (like St. Paul, for example), there is conflict. We are familiar with the words of St. Paul: "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to another: so that you do not the things that you would" (Gal., v. 17). A saint is not one who is free from conflict but one who knows how to deal adequately with his conflicts. Perhaps the most interesting definition of a neurotic is this: he is a person who spends so much time handling his conflicts that he has little time for anything else. This is most dramatically illustrated in the case of the obsessive-compulsive who is always washing his hands because of some guilt complex. Almost literally he has time to do nothing else in life but wash his hands, because somehow or other washing his hands is necessary as a means of dealing with his feelings of guilt. An adjusted personality can handle his feelings of guilt by a good confession, and then go about his business with a clear conscience. He can manage all his conflicts somehow or other, and without such a disproportionate expenditure of mental and physical energy that he has time for nothing else.
The question of maladjusted personalities touches on moral problems in just about every area of human behavior. I am going to single out for discussion, however, four types of moral problems that I think can be illuminated by principles of the psychology of adjustment and maladjustment. They are: (1) the problem of the alcoholic; (2) the problem of the sexual violator; (3) the problem of the scrupulous; and (4) the problem of what I shall call the "pathologically unsatisfied."
Alcoholism as a Moral Problem
Alcoholism used to be thought of as exclusively a moral problem. At the present day, many physicians, for example (about 40% of them according to a recent survey), consider it exclusively a medical problem. It is always a moral problem, and I suppose generally complicated medically. But it is also a psychological problem. We are talking about the real alcoholic, the person whose drinking more or less habitually interferes with other, more important activities: his home, his job, his Church, his social life. In these people alcoholism is a symptom of an unstable personality, a restless and maladjusted personality. The basic core of the alcoholic personality seems to be passivity rather than activity; introversion, or turning inward, rather than extroversion; feelings of inadequacy rather than of confidence. The best picture of the typical alcoholic seems to be that of a conflict between tremendous feelings of inferiority with regard to power and social adequacy — all that on the one hand, and on the other an extremely passive introversive personality pattern. The conflict may be acute. The alcoholic is aware of his inadequacy, of his inferiority. However, because of his passivity and his tendency to turn inward, it is impossible for him to do anything about his inadequacy. It is for this reason that turning to drink presents itself as a solution. For the excessive use of alcohol is in a sense an extroversive solution; it is a turning outward that is really artificial, that requires no active effort on the part of the individual, and that can give him a passing experience of social importance and adequacy. That is the basic reason why many alcoholics, who when they are sober are mild, retiring and quiet, will after a few drinks begin to sing, shout, quote or compose poetry, or perhaps fight. Under alcohol an externalization of personality has been achieved that has been impossible without it.
From another point of view, the excessive use of alcohol betrays that even in the most maladjusted individual there is a drive towards order and adjustment. In alcohol there is creativity, at least in the sense that the alcoholic can create his own world. A disordered world looks different; a disordered home becomes tinged with beauty; a disordered life is whisked away into a world of fancy where all is pleasant and as it should be. There are no longer repressions or restraints to bring about conflict. Everything that was humdrum is now interesting. The poor mixer, the poor talker, has the gift of tongues, and is freed from blocks, with worries forgotten. The alcoholic is inadequate in the world of reality. So, through alcohol he creates a world of fantasy where everything is in its place, including his own personality.
The moral treatment of alcoholics is long and difficult, as every priest, many wives, and many husbands also are well aware. So also the psychological rehabilitation of alcoholics is long and difficult, as every psychologist and psychiatrist can tell you. Nothing really effective and permanent can be done short of transformation of the personality. That is difficult. God's grace can accomplish it through prayer and the will to improve. Psychology and psychiatry can help also, through a careful putting together again of the pieces of a shattered personality.
Psychopathic Aspect of Sexualism
The second moral problem of interest to a psychologist we might consider is the problem of sexuality. There seems to be a wave of sexual crimes today. I don't know whether there are many more such crimes than formerly, or whether our news coverage is more complete; in any case, there has been considerable public interest stirred up recently over these crimes.
A psychologist who is aware of moral values in life is not surprised at widespread sexual violations in our culture. Consider the ideal of life that is being held up to our youth particularly in our movies, stage plays, magazines and newspapers, radio, and now in television. Our culture has glorified the body, and has made pleasure the supreme good. Have you considered sufficiently that the logical consequence of all this must be a collapse in morals, and particularly in sexual morals? If body pleasure is made the purpose of life, who is to say that the pursuit of that pleasure must stop short of its glorification in sex? Psychologically considered, it is impossible to stimulate millions of people indirectly, and often directly, towards sensual fulfillment without expecting outbreaks of sexual violence. My unpleasant prediction is that we are only seeing the beginning of the breakdown of sexual morals.
The sexual violator you read about in the newspapers, just as the real alcoholic, is always a maladjusted personality. The sexual violator is likely to be called a "psychopath." It is true that the designation "psychopath," or "psychopathic personality," is far from being precise, but it does connote an individual who is always making others unhappy. The neurotic suffers himself; the psychopath is the world's most selfish type of individual. That is fundamentally why most sexual criminals are psychopaths: they are selfish. They are really selfishly immature; they have not developed beyond stages of infantile pleasure-seeking that are totally selfish. A psychopath is a hard person for a psychiatrist or psychologist to treat. A skillful therapist is often able, however, to work successfully with the sexual violator, show him his immaturity, and aid him in growing up psychologically. A final thought here is that punishment does not cure the sexual criminal. Society must of course protect itself against sex crimes by imprisonment, but cures are effected only by a reorganization of a shattered personality. A psychiatrist or psychologist can help. The grace of religion, aided by such therapy, can work wonders. Here particularly the team of psychiatrist and priest, working together each in his proper sphere, can offer hope for improvement.
Is Scrupulosity a Mark of Insincerity?
The third problem I have suggested for consideration is the scrupulous. Scrupulosity appears to be the opposite of the two types of deviates I have just discussed. The scrupulous person is often popularly confused with a person of delicate conscience, who is always careful to avoid any moral taint. It is, of course, well known that this is not true. We all have respect for the person of delicate conscience: the conscientious person who does his duty, who is kind and helpful to his fellowman, who is careful to keep always close to his God. But that is not scrupulosity. I suggest the following analysis of a scrupulous person: he wants to eat his cake and have it; he wants to do wrong but have no guilt for having done wrong. This looks like an improper way to characterize the scrupulous: they seem to be the opposite. On the surface they are: they always seem afraid to do anything for fear it is wrong; they always seem to have guilt for past faults and fear of future ones. Here I propose to unmask the scrupulous! He sets up, perhaps always unconsciously, impossible conditions for morality. The most harmless act or thought he pretends is sinful. He is trying, often unconsciously I believe, to maneuver himself and his counsellor (generally his confessor) into a position something like this: "A moral life for me is really impossible — you see that it is; I can't do anything without committing sin. Now, no one is held to the impossible; no one is held responsible by God for doing things he can't help doing. Therefore, I am free of the moral law! Therefore, I can sin and sin boldly and have no guilt." There is evidence that this sort of mental mechanism constitutes the make-up of many scrupulous people: for many of them actually do give up trying to lead decent lives, and fall into debauchery. I don't think they find peace there, either, not even as much as would the non-scrupulous. For their lives are a lie; they are insincere people, even though on the conscious, surface level they often appear loudly and vociferously sincere.
A psychologist or psychiatrist, dealing with a scrupulous person, must somehow help him to unmask himself, to develop insight into his perverted conscience. Perhaps the most effective treatment is to bring the scrupulous to see that he is really no different from the rest of men; that he has the same drives, and is governed by the same moral law. The scrupulous always tells you: "But my case is different." The case may be different, but it is only by getting the person back into the family of the human race that the case can be cured.
Dissatisfaction as a Pathological Condition
The "unsatisfied," our last type of person for discussion, includes probably all of us. St. Augustine has given to us all the well-known plaint: "Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in Thee." The person who is completely satisfied with himself is just a fool. There is, however, a certain level of dissatisfaction that is really pathological. I refer to people with uncontrolled drives. Modern medicine, particularly that viewpoint that is called psychosomatic medicine, has shown that many so-called successful people develop a disproportionate number of ulcers, cases of heart disease, and other disturbances that are psychosomatic, a combination of the mental and the physical. It is sometimes said they have never learned to relax. The "unsatisfied" in this sense are those whose scale of values is upside down. God isn't near the top; service of humanity isn't near the top; love of family isn't near the top. At the top are the drives to wealth, prestige and power. These people are egotistical: they are convinced they can do anything, and they actually try almost anything, not for God or humanity, but for wealth, prestige and power. They are the successful men of the world, whose names are in the news. They are the people who get the nervous breakdowns. They are the people whose ulcers are festering, and whose souls are festering, for they are in love with themselves and with their own accomplishments. They have no time to love or to serve God; they have never had time even to know Him. They are the people who are seen by the most expensive psychiatrists, and I guess this is a good thing, for there is surely something therapeutic about bringing them to part with their money. They are disordered personalities, fixated at the lowest level of creation — the worship of money.
Marks of the Healthy Personality
The healthy personality, we have seen, is an ordered personality. His scale of values is an orderly scale, with top things on top and bottom things below. And what really are the top things is not hard to discover. We know what they are from revealed truth; we know what they are from the best inspirations of our race. God and salvation of our souls are at the top. Love and service of our fellow man are on top, too, for one cannot love God and hate one's neighbor. Close to the top, likewise, are all the beautiful things in life: the joys of family, the cultivation of knowledge, the wonders of music and art and literature. Below all that, far below, are the worship of pleasure, the worship of self, the worship of the purely material that is the worship of money.
The healthy personality can integrate all the values of life into their proper places. He can love music without denying God. He can love himself without oppressing his fellow man. He can use all God's gifts to man — including pleasure and the goods of the world without hurt, without guilt.
The healthy personality is integrated in himself at all levels, conscious and unconscious. His drives may be strong, but they are directed towards ends approved by his intellect. His emotions are warm and rich, but controlled and reasonable. You have heard the word schizophrenic: it means a splitting of the mind, a splitting of the personality. Every disordered personality is in a sense schizophrenic: his emotional life has become split off from the control of reason; his drives are uncontrolled. He is not a whole personality.
The healthy personality is a whole personality — and, finally, a holy personality. All three words, healthy, whole, holy, come from the same Anglo-Saxon root, h?l. Ultimately, in the human personality, they all mean the same thing. Saints are not neurotics or psychopaths or maladjusted. They are adjusted to God, they are attuned to the infinite. Psychologists and moralists may, and indeed unfortunately often do, say mean things about each other. But psychology and morality cannot be enemies. The aim of both is the healthy and holy personality. The tortured, neurotic, alcoholic, adulterous and ulcerous generation in which we live can find salvation only in its God; can recover its mental health only if it is spiritually healed, can find again its sanity only by regaining its sanctity. A great French writer has said: "Il n'y a qu'une tristesse: que nous ne sommes pas des Saints." There is only one sadness, there is only one tragedy in the world and in the hearts of men, and it is this: that we do not have holiness in our lives.
© Joseph F. Wagner, Inc.
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