Abstract
This article is a reflection on pastoral method in light of the metaphor of madness. I consider the notion of madness in terms of how it is represented in Western thought and take these representations as prisms to reflect on the attributes of pastoral methodology. More specifically, I use the notions of unreason, otherness, creativity, rage, and folly to think about the strengths of pastoral method.
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Notes
Boisen also struggled with mental illness, believing that it could be “a chaotic encounter with God that could lead either to new integration of the personality or to a fall into total inner disarray” (Holifield 2005, pp. 104–105). Thus, his concern for the mentally ill stemmed from his own experiences of mental suffering, which he argued could be a source of creativity.
Zizioulas (2006) argued that otherness is necessary for the possibility of communion. Yet, there are also occasions when the socially constructed other is barred from communion. Madness reflects the construction of otherness that leads to alienation—not alienation that is the result of madness.
Winnicott (1953), in his discussion on illusion in development and human life, uses madness metaphorically in terms of the creativity of infants and reserves literal madness for adults when the adult “puts too powerful a claim on the credulity of others, forcing them to acknowledge a sharing of illusion that is not their own” (p. 90).
For a more in-depth discussion on John Nash’s madness, see Donald Capps (2010, pp. 139–157).
I know one pastoral theologian who adamantly argues, somewhat persuasively, that there is no “unconscious.” At the same time, he will agree that we can lack awareness of something. So, if one does not accept the notion of an unconscious, perhaps we can agree that there are times we can lack awareness of something.
The acceptance of mystery does not suggest that there is an absence of critical and constructive analysis of the context, our knowledge, and our methods. We can and do know a great deal, but our knowledge and our ways of using that knowledge never fully account for the complexity of human life and the world.
Philippians 2:4–7, NRSV.
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LaMothe, R. Madness and Method: a Pastoral Theological Reflection. Pastoral Psychol 65, 787–802 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-016-0709-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-016-0709-1