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AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN APPROACH TO HEALING THE POST TRAUMATICSPIRITUAL DISORDER OF CONTEMPORARY HUMANITY
Rev. Dn. Stephen Muse, PhD, LMFT, CCMHC, BCETS
That a soul is truly intelligent andvirtuous is shown in a man’swalk, voice, smile, conversationand manner.
–St Anthony1
The human person “is a beingwhose essential qualities cannotbe grasped by the human mindworking within the limits of ra-tional, psychological or sensoryperception.”
—Philip SherrardPart-I The Hhuman Person
“What is Man that Thou artmindful of him, and the Son of Manthat Thou visits him”(Psalm 8:4)?The Psalmist’s question anticipatesa threefold response in light of therevelation of Jesus Christ thatframes our subject. First, there is thewhat—created human life whichshares the same biological limits anddesign with the entire creation. (Thisis the domain of science and medi-cine.) Secondly, each human beingis a who—a locus of personal con-sciousness distinct from every other,with personalities intersubjectivelyco-created and socially constructed.(This is the domain of psychology.)A third ontological dimension – Eter-nal Thou is needed to reveal howthe uniquenesses and ethical rela-tion of persons are related in a com-mon web of relationship that over-comes individual isolation inherent tosocio-cultural differences. (This isthe domain of revealed theology.)
The trialogical reciprocity ofpsychotherapyäéÜ-Ëïãïòan ontology of love
In the God-Man Jesus Christ,the uncreated divine nature and cre-ated nature are seamlessly united inone person while remaining distinctlytwo natures. It is through being re-membered in Christ through existen-tial and mysteriological participationin the Eucharistic Body of Christ,which is the Church, that sicknessand sin are healed. The human “Im-age” or potential for developing to-ward full personhood in the likenessof God is synergistic, personal andcommunal. Both human and divinerespond in an eternal liturgy thatoccurs in and through Christ, theLogos.
Relief from suffering is foundthrough experiencing transcendentmeaning, which transfigures thewhat of biological determinism aswell as the who of intersubjectiveisolation, bringing them to fruition inresponse to the Thou of the Logos.All this is inherent in Jesus’ decla-ration, “Wherever two or three aregathered in my Name, I AM amongthem (Mt 18:20).” The trialogicalencounter that occurs at the altar ofthe heart, between I and other,where the existential and ontologi-cal meet in and through Christ, I calläéÜ-Ëïãïò (Muse, 2011).
ÄéÜ-Ëïãïò by definition lo-cates pastoral psychotherapy in thedomain of the noetic uncreated di-mension in which two or more per-sons are recreated through thetrialogical reciprocity that occurs aseach is revealed as Thou in andthrough Christ who is love. In otherwords, however dimly realized, it isChrist who loves and prays for the
world through me and it is Christthrough whom I love and pray forthe world and it is Christ who lovesand prays for me through the world.Apart from Christ the human per-son and society cannot be healedand fulfill our collective or individualpurposes. This is because apartfrom Christ there is no escape fromthemonological confines of inter-sub-jectivity and its mutual projections.Projection always involves experi-ence of an object. It is only by beingin relationship with the Thou of theother that transformation can occur.Apart from Christ who unites allpersons, there is no transfiguration(metamorphosis) from the mono-logue of seeming-in-relationship tothe ontological Eucharistic gift of‘being-in-relationship’ as Father,Son, and Holy Spirit are in relation-ship. The psychotherapist’s encoun-ter at the altar of the heart of thepatient becomes an existential ex-tension of the priest’s encounter atthe altar of the Divine Liturgy withGod and the entire community. Bothare invocations for re-memberingourselves in Christ, whereby whatZizioulas (2007) has termed a “com-munion of otherness” becomes pos-sible for all the church, the same asit exists among the perichoresis ofthe Holy Trinity. In Christ this be-comes true for all humankind.
Theologically, the call and re-sponse between therapist and patientin psychotherapy is an invocation toGod, the same as the priest at thealtar in the Divine Liturgy (HolyQurbana). Transformation occurs asintersubjective process among per-
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sons, as on the Emmaus Road be-tween the two disciples and Jesus(Luke 24:13-35), opens up to thetrialogue of äéÜ-Ëïãïòas Christ isnoetically revealed among them. Inthe midst of the traumatic grief andsuffering following the murder ofJesus, Luke and Cleopas offer wel-come to a stranger. By so doing, asSt Paul suggests, they entertainednot only an angel unaware (Hebrews3:2), but the risen Lord himself. Theyresponded to noetic illumination inthe midst of psychological pain.
The inescapable trauma andgrief stemming from intersubjectiveisolation and the folie a deux ofmutual projection and scapegoatingthat totalizes the other, is overcomethrough the welcome and respect oflove leading to Theophany thatarises from being re-membered inChrist, as in the breaking of thebread in the Emmaus Road encoun-ter. This eternal ontological relation-ship in Christ between all personsexists prior to its existential recog-nition in time and space. That is tosay, the forgiveness and love of Godfor all humanity in Christ precedeshumanity’s recognition of it. Or asFr. Lev Gillet (1954, p 120) has rec-ognized, “There is a cross in the heartof God before creation.”
Etiology of Post Trau-matic Spiritual Disorder
The Eastern Orthodox Churchviews sickness and sin primarily asbeing a consequence of the exer-cise of human freedom in wayswhich violate the harmony of God’screation. The rupture in Commun-ion results in a cascade of dis-memberment reaching from spiritualto psychosocial to physical illness,addiction and violence to creation.This condition is indicative of bothillness and spiritual developmentalimmaturity that need life-long treat-
ment, care and formation. WhatPatristic witnesses call theosis orsalvation is found through asceticalresponse of fidelity to Grace, syn-ergistically with Christ and in ethi-cal relationship with all whom Christloves, that is, the entire creation.
On the personal level, symp-toms of Illness resulting from therejection of äéÜ-Ëïãïòin favor ofmonologue include fragmentation,dissociation, psychic numbing, anxi-ety, depression, contra naturalcravings and impulsivity. Addictionis a modern equivalent of the endresult of what the Fathers call “cap-tivity” to the various afflictive emo-tions or “seven deadly sins” and theirderivatives that infect the mind, suchas avarice, pride, vainglory, lust, glut-tony, and so forth. However, in mod-ern diagnostic terms we would eas-ily recognize the full complex ofthese symptoms as being consistentwith a diagnosis of post traumaticdisorder. Self-medication resulting invarious types of addictions is symp-tomatic of a deeper more encom-passing illness. In order to captureboth the psychological and transcen-dent spiritual dimensions of the hu-man predicament, I view the postlapsarian condition as “Post Trau-matic Spiritual Disorder” (Muse,2011).
At the individual psychologicallevel, post traumatic spiritual disor-der can be understood as manifest-ing as a variety of disorders currentlycatalogued in the DSM-V (2013).However it is more comprehensivethan mental illnesses. Post traumaticspiritual disorder is a consequenceof the human choice in the face ofthe gift of being created. The con-sequences of refusing our transcen-dent origins, results in the objectifi-cation and depersonalization of theself, others, God and the creation.Everything from the divisions among
people and nations to the destruc-tion of the great whales and oceanlife to the rain forests and vanishingspecies of plant and animal life areaffected. Creation is increasinglydefined in worldly terms as eco-nomic values in contrast to beingintrinsically valuable parts of a sa-cred cosmos. The actions resultingfrom this depersonalization of cre-ation are symptomatic of post trau-matic spiritual disorder at the sys-temic level as well.
Met. Hierotheos Vlachos in hisbook entitled Orthodox Psycho-therapy (1994) offers a synthesisof Patristic perspectives which out-line the diagnosis of the human con-dition in light of the hesychastic andneptic psychology of the noeticallyillumined Fathers. Their observationscontained in the collections ofthePhilokalia Vol. I-V (1976, 1995)describe the stages of the beguile-ment of attention leading to sin andthe ascetical means of cure throughinner prayer, spiritual watchfulness,and repentance. A high quality at-tention turned toward God from acollected inner state is essential tothe formational struggle to becomevulnerable to the divine uncreatedenergies offered freely to everyone,for as it is written, ‘The rain [of di-vine Grace] falls on the just and un-just alike” (Mt 5:45) but not all re-ceive it.
Romanides (2008), reflectingon the teaching of these Patristicwitnesses, suggests that being men-tally and spiritually ill “means yournous1is full of thoughts….Anyonewhose soul has not been purifiedfrom the passions2 and who has notreached the state of illuminationthrough the grace of the Holy Spiritis mentally ill” (pp. 23-24). This is amuch more comprehensive and ro-bust diagnostic gnosology than thepurely psychiatric categories offered
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in the DSM-V or the InternationalClassification of Disease which areculturally normative, biologically de-termined, and lacking spiritual dis-cernment and the recognition of fullhuman potential in light of the rev-elation of Christ. A human being cre-ated in the Image of God who hasnot attained to the likeness of Christin theosis, remains spiritually ill,however defined by normative psy-chiatry and psychological science.Such illness has physical, emotional,and intellectual consequences aswell as ontological significance thatremains beyond the bounds of sci-ence to assess. Because the deepstructure of human being is madein the Image of God, person willalways be beyond the ability of sci-ence to fully comprehend. St Gre-gory of Nyssa points out (Nellas,1987, p22) that just as the essenceof God is incomprehensible, so theImage of God in which humankindis created, is equally incomprehen-sible. For this reason science re-mains ever the servant of theology.There is conflict between the twoonly when science oversteps itsbounds explicitly by making meta-physical claims, or when ontology iscollapsed into psychology and thereis an absence of theological critique.This inevitably results in acceptingcultural definitions of the humanperson which lack the fullness ofparticipation in the transcendent di-vine life that God intends.
According to early Fathers ofthe Eastern church, the beginning ofsuffering depicted in Genesis chap-ter three, is the result of freedomused in contranatural ways that op-poses both God and human society.The result is that the nousleft theheart and humanity identified withreason and emotional and instinctivedesires, losing discernment and be-coming subject to passionate cap-
tivity by fantasies. In this fragmentedstate, captivity to passions gainspower through the medium of hyp-notic identifications leading to auto-matic thoughts, unbridled affect andcompulsive actions. Repeated oftenenough, these become addiction.Spiritually speaking, one is essentially“held captive by sin.” The Easternchurch understands this as being theconsequence of the untested spiri-tual immaturity of the prototypicalfirst human beings, Adam and Eve,who ate of the apple forbidden tothem by God which created a rup-ture between self, others, creationand God.
The church diagnoses human-kind as not being in our right mindwhich belongs united with the bodyso that the whole “heart” of a per-son is receptive and obedient to di-vine Grace. The state of psychicfragmentation accurately depicts theplight of contemporary humanitywho depend on a knowledge of goodand evil which can be obtained andacted upon without relationship toour uncreated transcendent origins.That is to say, we act on knowledgeof self, others and the world acquiredapart from äéÜ-Ëïãïò. As the Soph-ist philosopher Protagoras pro-claimed several hundred years be-fore Christ, “Man is the measure ofall things” rather than God, a viewthat has remained a temptation upto the 21st century. Theologically,this illness of pride on the part ofhumankind is perhaps most accu-rately described by the prophetIsaiah (47:10) who writes, “You havetrusted in your own wickedness. Yousaid, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wis-dom and knowledge have beguiledyou. You said in your heart, “I AM”and there is none besides me.”Monologue is at the heart of thespiritual beguilement which allowscreation to usurp the uncreated
God’s place and constitutes the spiri-tual root of all suffering and captiv-ity by every addiction.Treatment involves bothscience and divine Grace
St. Basil, in the fourth century,considered the church a hospital andthe priests to be therapists of thesoul. He created the first modernhospital complete with quality con-trol, a geriatric wing, social services,and sanitation, uniting spiritual care,worship and the best science of theday in promoting the well-being ofpersons (Miller, 1985). From its be-ginnings, the church has cooperatedwith science in a harmonious waythat was responsive to the spiritualand psychological dimensions ofhuman suffering (Larchet, 2002,2005, 2012). For this reason, inmany ways, salvation is best con-veyed in the modern context as in-volving medical, psychotherapeuticand hermeneutical dimensions in thecontext of a life-long developmen-tal process that unfolds through thetrialogue of personal encounter be-tween humanity and God.
Orthodox Christianity’s thera-peutic effectiveness has been em-pirically validated, not by, time-lim-ited, double-blind, randomized, con-trolled studies, but rather over mil-lennia-long periods of history repletewith replicability of numerous ex-amples, throughout varying histori-cal epochs, over huge cross-culturalcatchment areas involving billions ofsubjects. In this way, a recognizablepattern of human development andChristian formation is detailedthroughout Church history. Ortho-dox Christian history in this respectconstitutes a virtual two-thousandyear “therapy trial” far more rigor-ous and comprehensive than the re-search for current evidence-basedapproaches stemming from brieftime-limited studies pharmaceutical
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companies use to get new medicineson the market that are barely betterthan placebos.Orthodox Christiantherapy of repentance, watchful-ness, prayer, asceticism, almsgivingand worship originating in responseto noetic experience of personallyencountering divine revelation frombeyond the created order, goes farbeyond the so-called “best prac-tices” of modern psychotherapytechniques. Grace is an indetermi-nate noetic but real factor acting inand through persons who encoun-ter one another in loving, genuine andhumane ways leading to trans-formed lives.
Modern understanding of theneurobiology of addiction and thestruggle to maintain abstinence andachieve mental sobriety parallels thetraditional teachings on spiritualwarfare and guarding the heart de-tailed by various Patristic witnesseswho have made careful self-obser-vations of this process from veryrefined states of consciousness.The basic Patristic analysis of sinrecognizes how the energy of atten-tion is diverted and subtly capturedby logismoi (thoughts leading to sin)that enter the mental space trigger-ing the imagination and drawing offenough psychic energy to involvethe will in carrying out purchase ofwhat is offered to the unguardedheart via the mind. Modern studiesof the plasticity of the brain and itsneurochemistry reveal how thestages outlined by the Patristic wit-nesses is paralleled by changes inbrain structure which result fromhow the attention is used.
The attention is first distracted,then combines with imagination fu-eled by seeking pleasure which if notinterrupted leads to the will takingaction to align itself with and acquirewhat is desired. Through repetition,this process stimulates the brain to
grow and develop in the direction ofsupporting addictive compensations.The process is like adding “cookies”to the human bio-computer so it canconnect faster and more completelyto a given internet site. The brainessentially learns to induce a hyp-notic state through hijacking thedopaminergic pleasure centers ofthe brain, giving greater and greaterprominence in decision-making, tothe nucleus accumbens and the ven-tral tegmental areas which are re-sponsible for dopamine productionunderlying addictive craving.