Good Books and Good Authors
Benedict Groeschel
Spiritual Passages: The Psychology of Spiritual Development One of several wise books authored by Groeschel on the topic of psychology and spirituality.
Frankl, Victor
Man's Search for Meaning Frankl is a survivor of the concentration camps. This is his account and also the account of the school of psychiatry he founded, logotherapy. His concept is that man's great "drive" is for meaning in his life. This book is, after the diary of Ann Frank, the second most widely read book about the Holocaust. Very moving, very worthwhile, and so are all his other books.
C.S. Lewis
The Four Loves
Til We Have Faces
The Abolition of Man. Here, C.S. Lewis lays the foundation for moral philosophy, showing how the inclination to treat all thought outside the physical sciences as mere opinion is foolish and inconsistent.
Lifton, Robert Jay
The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocidee I have not read this; everyone who has recommends it -- with a shudder.
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A study of brainwashing in China Brainwashing is the same everywhere. My sister sent this to me the first time I was floundering around in an encounter-style group that was way beyond my depth.
Kenneth McAll Psychiatrist of Eucharistic healing
Healing the Family Tree
Karl Stern Psychiatrist, convert from Judaism to Catholicism
The Flight from Woman
This psychiatrist was highly recommended to me by a friend of Bob Kvarnes, one of his students and admirers. An Irish American, neglected (that should clue you) who quietly returned to the Church somewhere at the end of his life. As I understand it, he is responsible for the interpersonal school of psychiatry, the most substantial challenge to Freudianism. As soon as I read his work, I wanted to read more and tell you more. Click on his name.
Vanauken, Sheldon
A Severe Mercy This very moving personal story is simultaneously a discussion of love, in particular, love between man and woman, and about facing death as well.
Paul Vitz: Convert to Catholicism; student of Karl Stern,
Vitz was not aware of Stern's conversion until he was himself moving into the Church.
Psychology as Religion is a very interesting and helpful book about the manner in which our culture is moving towards treating professional psychologists as the priesthood of a new religion. Vitz has written many other articles, particularly some insightful ones about Freud and Jesus.
Where are we?
In the hundreds of years before the formation of psychology as a separate discipline, the topic of man's soul was well-covered by religion and philosophy, and, perhaps even more, by literature. It was a good system. A good story allows us to discuss various aspects of character and decision, and their consequences, without unhealthy introspection or uneasy self-revelation.
I have never seen a worthwhile textbook for high school psychology. While looking for one, I was reliably informed that, even at the college level, the "Christian" texts available in the 1990's were so poorly done that it was preferable to use secular texts and correct them along the way.
Nor have I ever seen a good text on guidance and counseling, which is kiddie psychology. We need a text which will specifically confront the curricula presently on the market and right now being absorbed by our children and/or their contemporaries.
While you are waiting, try Shakespeare...
