246 Journal of Rdigion and Health

Psychodynamics and the Holy Spirit

ORVILLE S. W A L T E R S

The concept of unconscious motivation has had wide acceptance in recent

decades, making its appearance in drama, art, literature, law, and education
as well as in psychology and psychiatry. The idea has also had wide currency
in theology, especially through the literature of the pastoral counseling
movement, which has been strongly influenced by psychoanalysis.
M a n y voices within theology have urged that the insights of depth
psychology be mobilized to illuminate and perhaps to revise traditional
theological concepts. Reinhold Niebuhr, for example, wrote: " W e cannot
scorn insights in which truth has been distilled from the half-truths of both
Freudianism and Neo-Freudianism. ''1 Samuel Miller, noting that "psychody-
namics has introduced a new dimension of great power and diversity,"
urgently advocates exploration of relationships between psychology and
theology: "Nothing is more critically needed at the present moment than a
definitive study of the relationship of psychodynamic structures to the
transcendental realities of theological affirmation. ''2 Miller recognizes the
naturalistic context of psychodynamics, its lack of scientific credentials, and
its brash assumption of authority over other criteria of truth, but insists that
i t b e heard: "Psychodynamics is a new dimension of human reality but it is
ORVILLES. WALTERS,PH.D., M.D., is Research Professor of Health Science and lecturer in
psychiatry at the University of Illinois. He is a graduate of the Menninger School of
Psychiatry, a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neuroiogy, and a Fellow of
the American College of Physicians.
Psychodynamicsand the Holy Spirit 247

neither the center of it nor the total measure of it . . . . Psychodynamics does

not have the whole answer, but it must be included in the new equation. ''3
Similar pleas have been m a d e by others for an application of psychody-
namics to theology, especially the work of the Holy Spirit. T h e appeal by
Pennington is characteristic: " T h e work of the Holy Spirit may b e - - I would
be tempted to say, must be--interpreted in terms of the well-established
insights of depth psychology . . . . Any adequate Christian psychology must
deal with this issue. TM
R. Newton Flew early recognized some of the implications of the new
psychology for theology. He imagines "pestilential thoughts" coming "out of
the subconscious into the waking consciousness," where they become tempta-
tion to sinful acts. " C a n this spell be broken?" Flew asks. "Is salvation
possible for the subconscious? ''5
Flew avoided identifying himself with any specific model of personality by
choosing the term subconscious. Freud used the word in one of his earliest
papers on psychoanalysis, 6 but later repudiated it as "incorrect and mislead-
ing." His dictum that the only proper distinction is between conscious and
unconscious became firmly established in psychoanalysis; hence the latter
term usually presupposes classical Freudian premises.

Which model of personality?

Sangster restated Flew's question in a chapter titled "Does the Holy Spirit
influence the unconscious? ''7 Sangster believed that the Freudian concept had
surmounted the obstacles that separate scientific theory from fact. " T h e
existence of the unconscious m a y now be said to be established beyond
scholarly dispute." This conclusion precipitated him into the highly contro-
versial field of personality theory.
A theory is an unsubstantiated hypothesis concerning reality that is not
necessarily known to be so and that must be confirmed before it can be
accepted as a fact. Personality theory differs from the theory of experimental
psychology in refusing to be bound by the rigid discipline and systematic
rules that are derived from the natural sciences. Rather, personality theory
248 Journal of Religion and Health

consists of speculative reconstructions growing out of clinical interviews and

observations? Although the unconscious has been described as "an unavoid-
able inference from experience, ''9 it is precisely the inferential nature of the
evidence that has blocked psychoanalytic theory in its efforts to achieve
recognition as fact.
Sangster employed the Freudian constructs of id, ego, and superego, even
though the acceptance of a fragmented self violated his declaration of loyalty
to "the unity of our mental life. ''1~ However, he also made use of the earlier
metaphor of stratification in personality, where ideas "rise to consciousness,"
and "sink away again" into the depths of one's being. T h e stratification
model is a part of Freud's topographic theory, which imagined a simple
conflict between unconscious instinctual urges and anti-instinctual forces.
Freud eventually concluded that this scheme was overly simple and aban-
doned the topographic hypothesis in favor of the structural theory. In that
paradigm, conflict occurs among id, ego, and superego, rather than conscious,
preconscious, and unconscious. T h e topographic and the structural theories
are neither compatible nor interchangeable. I~
Sangster likewise accepted the division of personality into a personal
unconscious consisting of repressed memories and a collective unconscious in
which are stored memory traces from man's ancestral past. This division
follows the Jungian paradigm. He thus borrowed from three theoretical
schemes, but since none of these is compatible with any of the others, the
result is a scissors-and-paste model lacking over-all consistency. Thus he
concludes, " W e believe that the Holy Spirit does influence the unconscious, ''12
without having been able to fit such an experience into any single theory of
personality 9
In spite of his somewhat uncritical acceptance of divergent psychological
constructs, it is to Sangster's resounding credit that he held tenaciously for the
primacy of the conscious:

Though the gracious influence of God presses, doubtless, upon children and adults in
their subconscious mind, his direct dealing with us must be in the conscious mind...
9 While no mortal would claim to know all the varied ways in which God deals with
Psychodynamics and the Holy Sp#it 249

varied souls, it were best to hold firmly to the principle that God deals with us always
as persons, and that we must say "yes" to Him in the conscious mind? 3

Composite of incompatibles
T h e mingling of discordant theories is even more pronounced in a study by
Ernest White. 14 The author opens with a question from Sangster, " W h a t
effect has the new psychology had on the quest for holiness?" then echoes
Flew's original question, "Is salvation possible for the subconscious?" His
book essays to formulate an answer in terms of modern psychological theory.
White accepts the idea that conduct is largely motivated by forces arising
from the unconscious. He declares that the basic theory of the unconscious
has stood the test and that "we should no longer look to reason for the
motivation of conduct. ''~5 The unconscious as conceived by White is a
composite of Freudian and J u n g i a n models. It is "a strange world of primitive
images" with "repulsive and frightening monsters inhabiting the depths. ''~6
Here are both the reservoir of repression and the ancestral collective uncon-
scious; here, too, are id, ego, superego, and ego ideal, libido and sublimation,
the shadow self and the archetypes, one of which is the Image of God.
Even after this unparsimonious roll call of entities, White affirms an
inviolate wholeness of personality. It is false psychology and false theology, he
asserts, to suppose that one part is redeemed and another part left untouched.
The new birth is a process, always unconscious and independent of man's
will, that brings a new force into the chaos of the unconscious. A new and
supernatural driving-power is introduced into the unconscious as Christ
brings harmony where there was discord. ~7 Conversion, in contrast, results
from a conscious act of the will in which a man turns to God? 8 The Devil
seeks to work evil in m a n on the unconscious as well as the conscious level? 9
In the end, White concludes, we are all accompanied in the journey of life by
the primitive, untamed J u n g i a n shadow self, 2~and must accept the evil in us
as a necessary part of our m a k e u p ? ~
The efforts of others who have tried, as White has done, to combine the
systems of J u n g and Freud have called attention to a basic incongruity.
Hostie has deplored efforts to unify the two systems by trying "to insert Jung's
250 Journal of Religion and Health

grandiose abstractions, such as the archetypes and the self, into Freud's quite
differently orientated system." Citing an earlier effort to reconcile Freud and
J u n g "by taking odd pieces from their two systems and soldering them
together," Hostie comments, "This kind of eclecticism . . . only serves to
heighten the confusion of language that was so rife in the camp of the depth
psychologists from the beginning. ''22
Edward Glover discredits Jung's system because of its vagueness, its
internal inconsistencies, and the mutual incompatibility of Freudian and
Jungian theories. He declares that there is no possible connection between the
unconscious of Freud and that of Jung. 23 According to Glover, Jung's failure
to distinguish between primary and secondary processes obliterates the
distinction between unconscious and preconscious, and leads a grand r e t r e a t
to Conscious psychology.24 He sees no way to bridge the gulf between the two
systems by eclectic compromises.

Redemption of the subconscious

In a study of the Holy Spirit, E. Stanley Jones also asks whether the divine
nature can extend to the subconscious mind. He re-echoes Flew's twenty-five-
year-old query: " T h e most important question for theology is, Can the
subconscious be redeemed? ''25 According to Jones, conversion occurs in the
conscious, but the subconscious, in which reside our basic drives, remains
unconverted. He accepts the idea that "we are largely determined from the
subconscious." The Spirit is in control of the conscious mind, but the
elemental desires are in control of the subconscious. "The conscious mind
determines the actions, our subconscious mind determines the reactions. ''26
Following conversion, "usually within a year," the subconscious urges begin
to reassert themselves. In the subconscious is a Trojan horse. The hidden
inmates spring out and a civil war between the converted conscious and the
unconverted subconscious minds ensues.
Jones believes that the work of the Holy Spirit is largely if not entirely in
the subconscious, a dynamic redemptive force designed especially to cleanse
and to convert the subconscious. "With the surrender of the subconscious to
Psychodynamics and the Holy Spirit 251

the Holy Spirit--surrendering 'all we know,' the conscious, and 'all we don't
know,' the subconscious, he moves into the subconscious and takes over
control of these basic driving urges. ''27
Jones acknowledges the holistic principle, but his construct functions in
segments. He is able to say that "anxiety in the subconscious produces a
tension in the whole person," but conceives of a conversion of the conscious
that leaves the subconscious unconverted. His psychological theory does not
explain why commitment of the self at the time of conversion fails to include
the subconscious, or how subsequent conscious surrender of the subconscious
as a necessary step to its conversion is possible.
Both the assumption that the unconscious is largely determinative in
h u m a n motivation and the idea that personality is divisible into functionally
insulated parts are highly questionable.

Unconscious as Holy Spirit

Lindsay Dewar offers a more ambitious psychological interpretation dealing
with the doctrine of the H o l y Spirit. 28 After examining biblical and patristic
teachings, he turns to the writings of Freud and Jung. He rejects Freud's
concept of the unconscious as unsatisfactory because it was represented as a
closed system. He recognizes the ambiguous and self-contradictory character
of Jung's concepts, but pronounces them the more intelligible of the two.
Dewar frequently combines concepts and terms that belong exclusively to
one system or the other. He rejects the Freudian id, but refers to the psychic
energy of the ego and speaks of "Christ taking over the superego. ''29 These
terms borrowed from the Freudian structural hypothesis are not really
essential to Dewar's principal thesis, which identifies the activity of the Holy
Spirit with the purposive and teleological activity of the unconscious de-
scribed by Jung. Dewar regards the healing forces of nature as "but another
name for the Holy Spirit. ''3~The psychiatric patient has "become cut off from
the instinctual roots of his being--in a word, from the beneficent leadings of
the Holy Spirit. ''31
T h i s matching of a theological with a psychological concept involves a
252 Journal of Religion and Health

mingling of categories that can be justified only if an identity is acknowledged

by both disciplines. Psychology is not likely to validate the influence of the
Holy Spirit, or to agree that it is "a matter of actual experience, as solid a
reality as that of electro-magnetism. ''32 Theology, for its part, is likely to
interpret Dewar's assertion of equivalents as a reduction of the supernatural
to the natural.
In the end, Dewar finds that inspiration reaches us by the route of the
unconscious, but that all such deliverances must be judged by conscious
reason. T h e unconscious is "open to the gracious influence of the Holy
Spirit," which accounts for beneficent effects on the conscious mind. He
arrives at the same conclusion as William James, who said, "If the grace of
God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal
door. ''33

The primacy of the conscious

In his appeal for differentiation between the psychological and the religious,
Miller wisely emphasized the fallacy of rewriting all religion in analytic
terms, since psychodynamics is but one aspect of h u m a n reality? ~ W h a t needs
equal emphasis is that psychodynamics is not necessarily a hidden dynamics,
with the unconscious having a dominant role. An earlier study a5 has traced
the rise and decline of an ill-advised disparagement of the conscious and an
overly generous evaluation of the scientific status of depth psychology.
Freud's depreciation of the conscious and his contention that the uncon-
scious is the "true psychical reality ''~ was from its beginning a gratuitous
assumption. Gordon Allport has long contended that conscious values and
intentions are far more important than Freudian and other irrationalist
theories of motivation are willing to allow? 7 While "psychodynamics" has
often been equated with psychoanalytic theory, the term has come to stand
for a general science of motivation that recognizes the autonomy of a
conscious, purposive self. Allport concludes, "In general the Freudian theory
seems best to fit certain types of neurotic disorder but falls short as a formula
for the healthy personality. ''38 A growing emphasis in the sciences of m a n
Psychodynamics and the Ho~ Spirit 253

upon the whole person in his environment is displacing the fragmented

psychoanalytic model, with its anthropomorphic internal conflicts.
Subconscious is a highly relative quality. The absence of any sharp line
between unconscious and preconscious and the great variability in ease of
recovering "unconscious" memories are well known. Freud was well ac-
quainted with the contention that so-called unconscious material is really
faintly conscious, and although he sought to refute the idea, 39 it is widely
recognized. May, for example, comments upon the continual surprise of both
analyst a n d patient when, upon the return of a forgotten memory, the patient
reports the feeling of having known it all the time) ~ Sangster was correct in
asserting that the levels of the Freudian topographic theory "are not separate
strata, but merge the one into the other. ''4~

Scientific answer to a theological question?

Flew's question, "Is salvation possible for the subconscious?" and Miller's
declaration, "the roots of faith must seek the darker depths of the subcon-
scious, ''42 tie together a theological verity and a theoretical concept isolated
from personality theory. Both men seem to be trying to find scientific answers
to theological questions.
The principal obstacle to such communication at this stage in the develop-
ment of personality science is the stubbornly incompatible character of the
categories employed by theology and by psychology. Without mutually
acceptable presuppositions and a common language, it is impossible to
describe the reality of theistic encounter in psychodynamic terms except by
reduction.
The difficulty was anticipated by Miller in his recognition that "any
attempt to testify to the reality of the transcendent by recourse to empirical
phenomena" might be balked by the nature of the m e t h o d ) 3 Stinnette has
well described the separate domains: " T h e problems of h u m a n existence are
not ultimately accessible to technical reason but, rather, require transfiguring
faith in the context of personal c o m m i t m e n t - - a community of commitment
as well as a community of analysis. ''44
254 Journal of Religion and Health

While the community of analysis coldly asks for credentials at the door
when a new psychological system seeks admission, the community of commit-
ment has often seemed overly fascinated by ambiguity and mystery. Thus, a
theologian writes: "I suspect that the reality of the atonement w i l l be
disclosed not at the level of the conscious mind, but in the depths of the
subconscious . . . where the patterns form for new syntheses of psychic
energy. ''4s This is more like a ticket to obscurity than the illumination
delivered by a scientific insight.
Psychodynamics candidly acknowledges its own i m m a t u r i t y - - " a n emerg-
ing field of psychology, whose theories and techniques are still struggling to
attain fruition. ''46 Psychology likewise confesses that it is "now badly dismem-
bered in contradictory theories. ''47 Theology cannot afford to be less rigorous
in its demands upon these disciplines than they are upon themselves.
This review of efforts by some theologians to illuminate the doctrine of the
Holy Spirit by drawing upon contemporary psychodynamic theory empha-
sizes the prematurity, if not the futility, of such attempts, While a readinessto
clarify theological concepts through the progress of psychological science
should be encouraged, the limitations inherent in such a process are clearly
evident.

References
1. Hofmann, H., ed., Making the Ministry Relevant. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1960, p.
47.
2. Ibid., p. 72.
3. Ibid., pp. 63, 69.
4. Pennington, C. A., "Neo-Wesleyanism, Neo-Orthodoxy, and the New Testament," Religion
in Life, 1960, 29, 529.
5. Flew, R. N., The Idea of Perfection in Ghristian Theology. London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1934, p.
411.
6. Freud, S., "Studies on Hysteria." Standard Edition of the CompletePsychological Works of Sigmund
Freud, Vol. II. London, Hogarth Press, 1955, pp. 45, 69.
7. Sangster, W. E., The Path to Perfection. New York, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1943, p. 118.
8. Hall, C. S., and Lindzey, G., Theories of Personality. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1957,
Ch. I.
9. Whyte, L. L., The Unconscious Before Freud. New York, Anchor Books, 1962, p. 57.
10. Sangster, loc. cir.
Psychodynamics and the Holy Spirit 255

11. Arlow, J. A., and Brenner, C., Psychoanalytic Concepts and the Structural Theory. New York,
International Universities Press, 1964, p. 3.
12. Sangster, op. cit., p. 123.
13. - - , The Pure in Heart. New York, Abingdon Press, n.d., pp. 234, 235.
14. White, E., Christian Life and the Unconscious. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1955, p. 9.
15. Ibid., p. 19.
16. Ibid., p. 16.
17. Ibid., p. 85.
18. Ibid., p. 30.
19. Ibid., p. 175.
20. Ibid., p. 157.
21. Ibid., p. 104.
22. Hostie, R., Religion and the Psychology ofJung. New York, Sheed & Ward, 1957, pp. 100, 101.
23. Glover, E., Freud orJung. New York, World Publishing Co., 1956, p. 176.
24. Ibid., pp. 46, 63.
25. Jones, E. S., Conversion. New York, Abingdon Press, 1959, p. 228.
26. Ibid., p. 235.
27. Ibid., p. 234.
28. Dewar, L., The Holy Spirit and Modern Thought. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1959.
29. Ibid., p. 186.
30. Ibid., p. 176.
31. Ibid., p. 177.
32. James, W., The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York, Longmans, Green & Co., 1902, p.
515.
33. Dewar, op. tit., p. 270.
34. Hofmann, op. cit., p. 72.
35. Waiters, O. S., "Theology and Changing Concepts of the Unconscious," Religion in Life,
1968,37, 112.
36. Freud, "The Interpretation of Dreams." Standard Edition, op. cit., Vol. V, 1953, p. 613.
37. Allport, G. W., Personality and Social Encounter. Boston, Beacon Press, 1960, p. 95.
38. - - , Pattern and Growth in Personality. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961, p.
163.
39. Freud, "The Ego and the Id." Standard Edition, op. cit., Vol. XIX, 1961, p. 16.
40. May, R., Psychology and the Human Dilemma. New York, Van Nostrand, 1967, p. 97.
41. Sangster, The Path to Perfection, op. cit., p. 122.
42. Hofmann, op. cit., p. 66.
43. Ibid., p. 72.
44. Homans, P., ed., The Dialogue Between Theology and Psychology. Chicago, Univ. of Chicago
Press, 1968, p. 109.
45. Hofmann, op. cit., p. 69.
46. Blum, G. S., Psychodynamics." The Science of Unconscious Mental Forces. Belmont, Cal., Wads-
worth Publishing Co., 1966, p. x.
47. Allport, The Person in Psychology. Boston, Beacon Press, 1968, p. 3.