Tony White

I was in supervision yesterday and I was asked a question about religion and psychology. It is not an uncommon question that one comes across from time to time. Is religion a Parent contamination of the Adult ego state? So I gave my answer which was maybe yes and maybe no. Then I gave further explanation and I came up with the following. It was one of those situations where as I gave my answer I stated things that I did not know that I knew. So I thought I would write it down here.

 

 

Now, I am no theologian. I am trained as a psychologist. So I am not making a statement here about religion or attempting to give some kind of definition of religion. What I am doing is making a statement about the psychological perception of religion. I am looking at how religion can be understood in terms of the personality or the human psyche.

 

The teaching of religion as is done by the church involves a doctrine being incorporated into the Parent ego state of the person. As the various scriptures are being taught and learnt they are being incorporated by the youngster into their Parent ego state along with various other Parent type tapes. It is a process whereby something from outside the individual gets incorporated into the personality. The diagram below shows this process where aspects of the religion are one of this person’s 4 various Parent ego state tapes

 

 

 

What the person then does with that tape is up to them. Some times it results in good things and sometimes it results in bad things. We need these Parent tapes or we have no society. It is these tapes that keep our Free Child in check. An unchecked Free Child will result in anarchy where people simply do what they want, when they want no matter how much it hurst others. So religious principles can be of a great assistance in this way.

 

Sometimes how ever the Parent tapes can be overly restrictive so the person ends up with virtually no Free Child left. When that happens the person will end up with some kind of problem like depression, anxiety and so forth. However this is yet to answer my student’s original question about religion being a contamination.

 

 

 

 

With some people the Parent can ‘contaminate’ the Adult ego state as is shown above. That is the person believes that what is a Parental opinion or value is actually an Adult ego state fact. So they begin to believe and act like their Parental tape is actually an Adult ego state fact and thus we have the contamination.

 

This is the first part of the answer to the supervisee’s question in the diagram below.

 

 

 

If those instances where the religious teachings become a dogma for the person then he is starting to see the Parental opinion or value as a fact and thus it is a contamination. They believe the religious principles as being incontrovertibly true. This may also be reflected in some kinds of fundamentalism. Their belief is perceived as being fact.

 

I must admit that I am amused sometimes when I hear those positing that science give the answers and that religion does not. Those who criticise religion for being a dogma and that such individuals are obviously misguided. Then they will say that they have the scientific approach to understanding the world. For instance in psychotherapy they say that they will only use approaches that are based on good scientific evidence. Such individuals are being just as dogmatic and fundamentalist as those religious people who they are criticising.

 

The scientific method is but one more Parental tape that explains a way to understand the world. It has its good points and it has its bad points like all other Parental tapes do. But to say that it is the only way to understand the outcome of psychotherapy is dogmatic and a Parent contamination of the Adult ego state.

 

 

 

However back to the student’s question at hand. From what I have observed there is another psychological component of religion that does not come from the Parent ego state but comes from the Free Child ego state. This is what I would see faith and perhaps spirituality as being. These things do not come from outside the person (like the Parent tapes) but come from within the individual. They are there already from birth. In some they get ‘expressed’ and in others they do not.

 

From a psychological point of view if a person has some kind of faith then they are more psychologically robust than that individual who does not. They have a belief in something that cannot be fully understood or seen or touched that maybe a higher power or benevolent in some kind of way. This may even be a living person.

 

For many this is what their religion or god is to them. It is something that they have a faith in and as I said before this can be a healthy thing to have from a psychological point of view. Indeed for some they could have a faith in science and that indeed would fulfil the same psychological function perhaps. 

 

 

 

If one does not have such a faith then perhaps they are missing something psychologically. In one way they could be described as lonely person or a person who lacks some kind of meaning. Indeed one could argue that the psychotherapy of Logotherapy as developed by Viktor Frankl is directly addressed at the person who has truly lacks a faith or belief.

 

I would also argue that in the diagnosis of the psychopath, anti social personality and narcissistic person one could also use the absence of a faith as a diagnostic criteria. These people in particular lack the aptitude of faith.

 

So to my student I would say that for some their religion is not a contamination at all but instead provides them with a way in which to discover, comprehend and express their faith. Which from a psychological point of view is a big plus and a sign of emotional health.

 

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