A response to Christian critique of psychology as a religion

Abstract

Modern psychology and psychotherapy for some, has become a functional religion. Certain Christian scholars have employed deontological ethics of mutuality and obligation to critique the implicit ethical egoist perspective of humanistic, Jungian and ego psychologies as scholars such as Don Browning believe that therapists and pastoral counselors have appropriated clinical psychologies without examining their implicit ethical egoist orientations. They believe that an ethic of generativity best exemplifies the fit between modern psychology and Christian theology. So-called "generative man" is the preferred archetype to "productive man" or "psychological man." However, the aretaic ethics of individuation and self-actualization have paradoxical utilitarian benefits for the community. It is argued that the process of narcissism associated with individuation is necessary before one can authentically embrace a deontological ethic of mutuality