Birds

 

Orthodox Psychotherapy; The Science of the Fathers

by Archimandrite Hierotheos Vlachos

Despondent and spiritually challenged one recent Sunday, I listened in desperation as Father George sonorously in toned the epiklesis. Would that the Holy Spirit transform my heart into a vessel fit for the Body of Christ! In such crises, much of my learning is useless, but not all. The Prayer of the Heart, as I have been taught by one of its foremost practitioners, can achieve just such a personal transformation. The teacher to whom I refer is Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos.

Orthodox Psychotherapy is a more comprehensive and didactic book than Metropolitan Hierotheos' earlier works, whose appeal lie in their intimate lyricism. The style of Orthodox Psychotherapy reflects a more analytic approach and articulated objectives. While the unique qualities of the works previously reviewed would not permit a claim they were somehow subsumed by the text of Orthodox Psychotherapy, the latter can be said greater than their sum as antecedents. While possibly not flawless in form, Orthodox Psychotherapy remains arguably one of the most significant works of this generation.

Following introduction, to which I shall return in my inimitable convoluted fashion, the author explains the title and its implications. 'Psychotherapy' refers to the inherent and integral therapeutic role of the Church and while there are interesting comparisons between this ancient divine mandate and modern psychiatry, the author's aim is not principally to reconcile the two. While rejecting the positivistic baggage of Latin religious philosophy, he makes admirable use of philosophic clarity in relating the condition of existential angst burdensome to modern philosophers. Existential therapy is a process of personal introspection and change, interpersonal communal solidarity, culminating in Theanthropic communion. The author employs the patristic terms describing this programmatic continuum of the Holy Apostolic Faith; purification, illumination, glorification.

While elsewhere Vlachos acknowledges as a dialectic device (illness and cure of the soul) the manifold appeal of the Church as point of departure on the spiritual journey, he identifies the salvific healing hesychastic process as the fundamental purpose of the Faith here. Hesychasm, rather than a facet of Orthodox theology, is presented as the embodiment of its sacred tradition. In reading Bishop Vlachos and some of his contemporaries it might seem to the inattentive student that the salvific role of hesychastic practice has been stressed at the expense of communal and cyclical liturgical observances, including the Holy Mysteries. Vlachos' contention is that the hesychastic lifestyle is solely capable of preparing one for participation in the Holy Mysteries and full appreciation of their meaning. Conversely, it is those ignorant of the truths of hesychasm who trivialise the sacred rites and stand thereby in peril. Fears that a resurgence of hesychasm could collapse the Church into isolated worshippers confined to their icon corners are dismissed as unfounded. Absent the hesychastic promise of purification, illumination and glorification, the Eastern Orthodox are reduced to long beards...long robes...long services' to paraphrase the words of the author's colleague, Fr John Romanides. The descriptive definition of the Church as spiritual hospital is of its role proper, rather than a quaint analogy. Within this vessel is undertaken the arduous task of spiritual healing, patients diagnosed being without exception suffering from the malady of the Fall. Treatment commences with the personal acknowledgement of our broken nature and is fulfilled only through theotic glorification. The practitioners, whose role in theotic process is paramount, enjoy themselves some degree of sanctity, or at least such aspirations. As physicians they are commanded to heal themselves, and their work so demanding their (spiritually) dead must dig their own graves.

Ideally, the ordained clergy can fill the role of therapist, imparting as deacons, priests, and bishops correspondent guidance toward purification, illumination, and glorification. This ideal is often unmet, however, and while even unworthy priests may celebrate the Liturgy, calling on the Holy Spirit as the people's voice, they cannot act as spiritual guide or healer by virtue of office. Vlachos reminds us the 'royal priesthood' includes all the baptized who can act legitimately as priestly therapists given the other requisite credentials and gifts. A degree of spiritual illumination, for example, is required, as well as a sense of rapport with the patient. This observation accounts for the historical proliferation of unordained celebrated as spiritual teachers and addresses the lament that the age of the post-Patristic starets is passed and with it the age of hesychasm. Those who complain it is these days impossible to find decent spiritual help may be looking in all the wrong places. One's parish priest may be neither a peerless elder nor evil incarnate, but simply not a schooled hesychast nor called as a therapist.

While complaints about the lack of good spiritual therapists is a familiar one, it is not a major concern of this Reader. I questioned Fr Vlachos regarding logistical practicalities of treatment, how hesychasm could be realized by the masses of Orthodox Christians living, say, in urban settings in the post-industrial West. It was not clear to me from his writings nor others advocating hesychasm as a means to how this was possible for many, nor for any save those able to frequent monasteries. His response gave me fresh insight and enthusiasm for his work, which otherwise, at least in available English texts, is largely devoted to hesychasm's theological underpinnings. Archimandrite Vlachos, it appears, is himself spiritual father to a vast number of spiritual children, particularly (c. 1994) in and around Athens, though his influence is global. The more spiritually healthy of these senior acolytes, in turn, act as supports for others and maintain a treatment network. Recitation of the prayer of the heart need not be confined to a cell to derive benefit, but can be undertaken while driving or riding the bus, or on break from work. Novices might set a modest goal to pray 30 minutes twice daily and all should be realistic in their discipline.

Beyond the case for therapy as appropriate ecclesiastic model, the preface targets the chapter dealing with the nature of the soul, or the 'psyche' to be treated, as the next most crucial to a contextual understanding. 'Soul' is conceded as a Platonic convention admissible as Christian figure of speech only provisionally. Not entirely adequate to describe Christian spiritual beliefs, neither is 'psyche' without theological ambiguities. The difficulty with such terms is that, taken too literally, or with philosophic or psychological uses intact, they suggest mind and spirit are somehow aside from the self. This conflicts with the aim of the Church's traditional hesychastic healing approach to the whole person. Vlachos admits he nor the ancient fathers were so biased against philosophy to refuse to trade on its terminology. Human language is limited in its efforts to explain the eternal mysteries, but Vlachos' preference is to opt for the term 'nous' as most viable in describing the spiritual capacity for Divine apprehension. The 'purification' of the soul is in essence a clarification of this faculty, lost by way of the fall, and likely damaged through a lifetime of choices motivated by self-love rather than compassion. The nous, and noetic insight are the organ and perceptual capacity specifically treated through Orthodox Psychotherapy. Through hesychastic treatment, prayer restores this faculty, which rests in the heart. The words of Christ are thus fulfilled, that it is the pure in heart who will see Him.

Hierotheos Vlachos students include the translator, Esther Williams, to whom the fine English language rendering of this volume is owed. Critical audients present at the conference with the author have suggested the book could benefit from further editing; in reviewing the author's introductory remarks it is plain much of the book's construct is quite intentional, though the Reader sometimes was impatient at the author's insistence at citing such broad patristic references in vindicating each major idea. I attribute this with the advantage of personal acquaintance, to his unassuming modesty and devotion to the Fathers, Like many of them, he tends to enumerate premises and conclusions in a tendentious trinitarian formula. Orthodox Therapy was reported to have been written on a manual typewriter during a two-week stay at a friend's apartment in Athens. I took this report initially as of inspired genius, but perhaps a future edition might enhance its general audience appeal, I am not insistent on this as a priority, however, as I would be more eager to read of Vlachos' work which is yet untranslated into English.

Work such as Metropolitan Vlachos' fits well the interests of this publication and the output of Synaxis Press. The hierarchs of the Archdiocese, and Archbishop Lazar Puhalo in particular, have, for the past twenty-five years, consistently emphasized the Church's role as spiritual hospital and healing and personal transformation as the core of the Christian message. A welcome feature of Orthodox Psychotherapy is the frequent reference to writers whose work has been discussed in these pages including Professor Christos Yannaras and Father John Romanides. Those of us in attendance at the seminar at which Fathers Vlachos and Romanides spoke remain indebted to His Eminence Archbishop Lazar and the Brotherhood of All Saints of North America for this opportunity.

Nicholas Franck


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