Psychology and Catholicism: Contested Boundaries

Description

In this study of psychology and Catholicism, Kugelmann aims to provide clarity in an area filled with emotion and opinion. From the beginnings of modern psychology to the mid-1960s, this complicated relationship between science and religion is methodically investigated. Conflicts such as the boundary of 'person' versus 'soul', contested between psychology and the Church, are debated thoroughly. Kugelmann goes on to examine topics such as the role of the subconscious in explaining spiritualism and miracles; psychoanalysis and the sacrament of confession; myth and symbol in psychology and religious experience; cognition and will in psychology and in religious life; humanistic psychology as a spiritual movement. This fascinating study will be of great interest to scholars and students of both psychology and religious studies but will also appeal to all of those who have an interest in the way modern science and traditional religion coexist in our ever-changing society.

Robert Kugelmann is a professor of psychology at the University of Dallas. He has written two previous books: The Windows of Soul (1983) and Stress: The Nature and History of Engineered Grief (1992).

'Kugelmann has done a masterful job of documenting a major set of developments with psychology and with US Roman Catholicism from obscurity, while integrating many diverse literatures and strands of scholarship in psychology, history, theology, philosophy, and their relevant subspecialties. Were the opening chapter required reading in every psychology of religion course, as well as every Christian seminary and pastoral counseling program, it would elevate the level of discourse in the field tremendously.' Brian H. McCorkle, Boston University 'This is an insightful study about the many relationships and the many forms of Catholicism and the equally pluralistic science of modern psychology. Well informed, Kugelmann gives a lucid and fair account of both the struggles and [the] encounters as they have taken place in the United States of America. Detailed and precise, the volume may well serve as a model for research into the complexities of the situation in other countries, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the contemporary relations between religion and psychology in general.' Jacob A. Belzen, University of Amsterdam 'Kugelmann has marshalled an extraordinary wealth of original archival research and a keen sensitivity to the historical, cultural, and theological world of twentieth-century Catholicism in telling the story of the encounter between scientific psychology and the Church. This volume is essential for any historian of the human sciences exploring the ways late modernity and religious institutional life met one another during the last century.' Vincent W. Hevern, S. J., Le Moyne College 'The author's great passion for his subject shines through this book, and I was certainly enlightened by his clear, detailed account of this very complex subject.' The Psychologist