Effects of sacraments psychological - mind vs. soul

[Racer_X]

In an imaginary conversation I wondered: suppose someone were to say to me, “The effects of your sacraments on you are merely psychological,” what would I say? My trite response was, “Well, does not the word psyche mean soul? Yes, the sacraments effect my soul.”

However, it would appear that my imaginary skeptic means something very different than I do. But what? Is the mind something different from the soul? My impression is that Catholic understanding says no, although it does hold that the mind proper is a subset of the soul.

An interesting point here is that since it cannot be denied that the sacrament of Penance, say, does indeed have “psychological” effects on the penitent, a non-Catholic Christian then cannot deny that it has “real” effects on the soul.

I don’t have time at the moment to expand on this, but I wanted to lay this out to see what others might have to add.

 

[JimG]

The effect of the sacraments is primarily spiritual, not psychological, (by which I mean having to do with emotions and feelings.)

Now of course, they can have psychological effects, but that’s just a bonus. Often, you may not feel anything at all upon receiving a sacrament, but the spiritual effects are guaranteed. (ex opere operato, as Grandma used to say, especially after having a few beers.)

I would say that the soul is the life principle of a living being, and in the case of human beings, the soul is a spirit (i.e., non-material, having the faculties of intellect and free will.)

The psyche is more of a psychological term, and includes our bodily state, emotions, feelings, and motivations.

JimG

 

[Racer_X]

I don’t know why this got moved from apologetics. My intended point was to discuss whether there is at bottom any real difference between the “spiritual” and the “mental” and what that means.

For instance, at Wikipedia.org an author wrote in defintion of “psyche”: In psychology and related fields, the sum total of the non-physical aspects of a person; while “mind” might be too specific and “soul” carries some mystical overtones, “psyche” is a suitable word to denote the entirety of what makes a person be who he is.

So from the psychological perspective, mind is more specific than psyche, and they only refrain from the term soul because of “mystical overtones,” whatever that means. Okay, let’s be frank. It means they intentionally avoid the word just because it has religious associations, not because the terms actually have meaningfully different content.

Compare with what Catholic Encyclopedia says about Psychology: *By [Catholic writers], psychology has usually been conceived as one of the most important branches of philosophy. In their view it may be best described as the philosophical science, which investigates the nature, attributes, and activities of the soul or mind of man. By soul, or mind, is understood the ultimate principle within me by which I think, feel, will, and by which my body is animated. Whilst the soul and the mind are conceived as fundamentally one, the latter term is usually employed to designate the animating principle viewed as subject of my conscious or mental operations; the former denotes it as the root of all vital activities. *

So if the mind is contained within the scope of soul but not identical to soul, then if a skeptic says, “Your sacrament is just having a psychological effect,” he must be meaning that its effect is limited to the mental and does NOT affect the non-mental aspect of the soul. What is not clear to me is what sort of the thing the “non-mind aspect” of the soul might be.

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

The church teaches that 3 Sacraments leave a mark on the soul-which you carry with you ultimately to heaven or hell. They are: Baptism, Confirmation, and Orders. There is nothing psychological about them.

God bless
Deacon Tony

 

[T.A.Stobie_SFO]

“The effects of your sacraments on you are merely psychological”

Most definitely not. The Sacraments can affect our lives in every way, in our minds, in our bodies, and in our souls for our good.