Where Psychology and Sociology Get It Wrong
If you have ever been through difficulty of the mind whether trauma, mental illness, and/or great struggle in one's life, then you have experienced something of what psychology and sociology have to offer. This has been a great help for many, yet something is missing. Accuracy is calculated by the following formula ((Observed value - target/actual value) divided by the target/actual value). Psychology/Sociology can find a regression or trend line of the human data points. This makes these sciences a "science of the norm" instead of a "science of law". Neither sociology nor psychology understands its object in its true context, and still more, do they evaluate humanity by objective criteria.
"In the beginning" man was created aright. Man and Woman understood themselves, God, and each other. However, there was a force that hated him which was stronger than them, faster than them, and smarter than them. Man did not know the thoughts of God, but yet he knew God. When told he was all wrong about God, about himself, and about those around him. Man forsook all He knew in a second, and forgot it all together (Genesis 1-3). This is something like what was the case at the beginning. Is this good news? No, certainly not, since it was the moment man renounced his Divine Filiation and surrendered to the enemy, who destroys and deceives. Yet, we know the rest of the story, and it is the Good News (that we are redeemed and the baptized in the process of salvation as individuals) that makes the bad news (we are fallen, blind, and ignorant to what is good, true, and beautiful) helpful. We are not crazy, we are not the problem, but there is a new reality in every man that touches upon the incommunicable. Our every suffering finds its origin there (sin), whether it is an immediate cause or a distant first cause with several intermediate causes. Its nature is such that it will prevent us from truly being whole until we are purified of it and entirely into that perfect communion with God.
Christ is the one true answer to the question of "who am I?" Psychology has a whole where the data would otherwise have an absolute starting point/foundation. In place of this, psychology considers the "norm", but what happens when the norm is wrong, skewed, or broken? The line may even be parallel to what we were made to be, but it by definition can never intersect or match what a truly healthy person would be. The glory of the Christian ideal is it actually references not just a man, but the Man, and as such sees what man is meant to be even if broken. The norm is truly abnormal. The best of what psychology/sociology can provide us is a baseline that is better than the worst, and still worse than the best.
In conclusion, Christ is the target and actual value of humanity. Everyone else determines their wholeness in comparison to that absolute and not what is common. Christ is the only entity capable of completing the sciences of sociology and psychology. Since Adam and Eve, there have been no unfallen creatures except Christ and His Mother. We know the accuracy equation will never hit 100% on Earth but why should we not hope for 95% or higher? If we are not at 100%, do we really only have ourselves to blame? Is this not helpful in understanding the need for something like purgatory and redemptive suffering on earth? We will need to be at 100% in Heaven (Revelation 21:27), and are we to expect to change when we get there (cf. Matthew 22:11-14) or that there will be a time between there and Earth when we will leave? Psychology/sociology will probably not take up this advice and it will remain a "science of the norm". However, you will notice "sciences of law", like physics, assume absolutes like F=ma or E=mcc. Nevertheless, Catholic psychology is the best you will find.
"For without the Creator the creature would disappear. For their part, however, all believers of whatever religion always hear His revealing voice in the discourse of creatures. When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows unintelligible." Gaudium et Spes 36
Written by Carter Carruthers & also available soon at Missio Dei
