Brock Chisholm's Psychiatry of Enduring Peace and Social Progress

 

These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:11)

 

America was founded on the idea that a responsible, God-fearing population possessed the morality for a people to live free from overbearing government. A constitution based on the principles of natural law, and the belief that when left to their own devices, men would make decisions that would contribute to not only their own prosperity but the nation’s as well, has guided our nation since its inception. America’s Christian beliefs and devotion to the ideals set forth in our founding documents, which many believe to be based on Biblical principles, have led to the greatest expansion of human freedom the world has ever seen. Freedom from a Biblical perspective means understanding that there is a universal purity, a code of morals that govern the human soul. A truth that, when pursued, leads to true love and compassion towards others while also allowing men to live in a state of genuineness. Striving to be better people as we try to tame our natural inclinations and fill our hearts, and enlighten our souls, with the word of God. Few could argue, as they wrestle with the question of how it happened, that America’s morality has slipped, and the concept of truth has been distorted and perverted to where its very existence has become nothing short of a scientific debate. Does a universal morality exist? How is true freedom defined? Being free to pursue truth or being free from so-called, self-described delusions of God and a higher purpose, of which some argue have served as mechanisms of control from generations past?

“Psychology has grown into the privileged but precarious position of defining with primary, if not exclusive authority, what the nature of man is.” (Bruner, Foreword in The new man in Soviet Psychology, 1952, p. xx)

Blaze Media recently ran a story highlighting a high school gym teacher being placed on administrative leave for refusing to acknowledge the school’s transgender policies. The teacher, Byron Cross, stated that he would not participate in lies that would defile the image of God in the minds of young, impressionable children. He was alluding to the undeniable truth that biologically, a boy cannot decide to be a girl and vice versa. This is a sickness that has infected the very soul of our nation. A direct result of disregarding the truth of God and allowing man to define our existence. America has been viewed as a Christian nation since our founding. How did something like transgenderism, the lie that children can choose their own gender identity, become so pervasive in our society? J.S. Bruner, in his foreword to The New Man in Soviet Psychology (1952, p. xx), writes that he who molds and defines the image of man does so with enormous consequences to the future of humanity, and this defining view can be an instrument of social control. American’s have allowed, through a slow and steady push of progressive ideology, social science to define our value. Psychology has replaced religion in almost all spheres of our lives, even in the very churches we attend.

“Fully persuaded that psychological training is necessary to counsel effectively, most pastors today refer their parishioners to psychologists and psychiatrists for treatment of serious emotional and behavioral disorders. Christian publishing houses pour out an endless stream of books written by psychologists to help believers solve their problems of living. These experts appear on Christian radio and television and produce film series to communicate their belief that pastors and churches can help parishioners with minor problems, but serious disorders must be entrusted to professional counselors.” (Bulkley, Learningtheology.com)

Pastors referring their parishioners to trained psychotherapists is antithetical to religion because, as I intend to show in this paper, the purpose of psychotherapy and psychology itself is to redefine man and his systems of morality. After World War Two, Canadian psychiatrist Brock Chisholm presented a paper to the World Health Organization entitled The Psychiatry of Enduring Peace and Social Progress: The Reestablishment of Peacetime Society. The purpose of this paper was to present psychiatry and psychology as a way of curbing man’s behavior in a time when the destruction of the world, made possible by the splitting of the atom, has become a feasible reality. Molding man to become a “global citizen” (Jui Wu, 2015) by curbing his anxieties caused by the inequality of capitalism, and the fears created by traditional belief systems was the goal. This is the point where psychology, opposed to religion, would shape and mold man’s nature and man would define his own existence. Chisholm, as many in the field of psychology do, viewed religious morality as the problem. It would be the responsibility, as Abe Fortas wrote in the foreword, of the church, school, home, and government to examine, understand and treat the ills which plague society and the individual, and it is the role of the psychiatrist to eradicate those causes.

Chisholm wrote the primary cause of man’s aggression, the reason we fight wars is what he refers to as “the lowest common denominator in all civilizations” (1946, p. 7), morality. The false belief that there is a universal right and wrong is the primary cause of all “fear, guilt and feelings of inferiority that cause people the need to control other’s behaviors and beliefs” (1946, p. 7). It is the conviction of truth as a universal concept that prevents maturity and rational thinking, and bowing down to the doctrine of sin and the existence of evil, which has prevented true progress (1946, p. 7). Religious belief is a dogma, writes Chisholm (1946, p. 8) which prevents men from reasoning and enjoying their inclination to follow their natural urges. Religion is viewed as something that restricts men’s ability to think freely while imposing limitations on where that thinking may lead. This is true, Christian morality would not encourage the type of free-thinking that leads to encouraging children to defy their given gender. Christian morality encourages the pursuit of truth. It is the difference in the way psychiatry and religion define truth that has led America astray. From the perspective of Chisholm and others in psychiatry, truth is defined in terms of Darwinist evolution, and because of that, it is the job of psychiatry to guide thinking and behavior away from the neurosis of religion and towards a more natural way of thinking. Darwin first posited the idea that man is nothing more than an evolved ape whose morality should be man-centered only up to a certain point (Rachels, 1990, p. 173). Because we evolved from animals, and not created by a divine being, it is logical, according to a concept known as moral individualism (Rachels, 1990, p. 173) to accept the notion that man has no greater value than any other animal. Moral individualism suggests that when judging whose life has more value, an animal, or a human, the characteristics of each should be the deciding factor. It was the introduction of Darwinism to the world which gave science the needed philosophy to redefine what it means to be human. If man is an evolved ape, and not the creation of an all-powerful god, the concept of right and wrong and good and evil is easily dispelled and cast aside.

The objective of all psychotherapy writes Chisholm (1946, p. 9), is the “re-interpretation and eventually, eradication of the concept of right and wrong which has been the basis of child training.” There is not a public school in America which does not have in its employ, counselors, and psychologists who monitor behavior and prescribe drugs to contain it. Chisholm suggested elementary education should be working along with those in psychiatry to do away with the prejudices of right and wrong and good and evil (1946, p. 9). It is the job of the psychiatrist to train psychotherapists and teachers into the ways of training children which will free them of such burdens (1946, p. 9). Psychology and sociology, and what Chisholm refers to as “the sciences of living” (1946, p. 9) should be dominant in elementary schooling while more advanced subjects should be saved for university studies.

With the other human sciences, psychiatry must now decide what is to be the immediate future of the human race. No one else can. This is the primary responsibility of psychiatry. (Chisholm, 1956, p. 11)

American’s continue to watch in astonishment as that which makes no sense challenges our basic sense of morality. We sit in frustration and helplessness as we watch our schools indoctrinate our children into transgenderism while also instilling in them a belief that our values are outdated, misguided, and not suitable for the world developing around them. We are blissfully unaware that even our most cherished institutions have allowed the poisoned view of psychology to replace religion. Unbeknownst to most, the system that is seemingly there to help exists solely to eradicate our beliefs of what is correct behavior, and replace them with evolutionary thinking to strip us of the morals which Chisholm holds, are the “lowest common denominator of all civilizations” (1946, p. 7) Values which the psychiatrist believes lead to the fears, prejudices, and feelings of inferiority responsible for man’s aggressive behavior and need to control others.

It is due time that those in the psychiatric profession take a hard look at their own behavior. Feeling the need to strip man of his religious belief is driven by only one thing. The fear of admitting that God exists in the first place. It could be theoretically argued that many of America’s problems didn’t come about until the Supreme Court ruled prayer in public school to be unconstitutional in 1962. The first amendment was radically interpreted to mean freedom from religion, opposed to freedom of religion. The concepts of right and wrong and universal truth have been gone for decades, and we are now weeping the whirlwind with generations of kids growing up to believe they can choose their own gender. As if that will lead to greater peace and prosperity.

Bruner, J. S. (1952) Foreword in The New Man in Soviet Psychology, p. xx. London. Oxford University Press.

Buckley, E. (2010) Is psychology needed in the church? Learntheology.com

Chisholm, G. B. (1946). THE PSYCHIATRY OF ENDURING PEACE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS (THE REËSTABLISHMENT OF PEACETIME SOCIETY)-The William Alanson White Memorial Lectures, Second Series. Psychiatry, 9(1), 1.

Rachels, J. Created from animals: The moral implications of Darwinism. (1990) Oxford, New York. Oxford University Press.

Supreme Court rules prayer unconstitutional 1962. Supreme Court Rules School Prayer Unconstitutional (historycentral.com)

Wu, H. Y.-J. (2015). World citizenship and the emergence of the social psychiatry project of the World Health Organization, 1948–c.1965. History of Psychiatry, 26(2), 166–181.