C
C.laypersona
Guest
“(T)he human person is a unity of body and spirit, possessing an inviolable dignity as one made in the image of God and called to a transcendent destiny. For this reason, the Church is convinced that no adequate assessment of the nature of the human person or the requirements for human fulfillment and pyscho-social well-being can be made without respect for man’s spiritual dimension and capacity for self-transcendence. Only by transcending themselves and living a life of self-giving and openness to truth and love can individuals reach fulfillment and contribute to building an authentic human community. . . .
“The foundations of human dignity are to be found in the truth about man, and in his human freedom to form his instincts and passions according to the objective requirements of the Moral Order. As the Scriptures suggest, there is an unbreakable link between authentic freedom and truth (cf. John 8: 32); indeed, freedom attains its full development only by accepting the Truth. It follows that no genuine therapy or treatment for psychic disturbances can ever conflict with the moral obligation of the patient to pursue the truth and to grow in virtue. . . .
“Psychiatrists [and psychologists] must also feel themselves responsible for the social ramifications of their practice. This is especially true today, when there is ever more clearly a relationship between the appearance and aggravation of certain illnesses and mental disturbances [e.g., neuroses, psychoses], and the crisis of [authentic] values which [modernized] society is experiencing.”
(Address of His Holiness John-Paul II to the Members of the American Psychiatric Association and the World Psychiatric Association; Vatican, 04 January 1993)
It is possible and even probable, that Pope St John-Paul II has borrowed the term ‘self-transcendence’ from the writings of the psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl (1905–97, Austria), the founder of Logo(s)therapy. Frankl:
“(H)uman existence – at least as long as it has not been neurotically distorted – is always directed to something, or someone, other than itself, be it a meaning [Greek ‘logos’] to fulfill or another human being to encounter lovingly. I have termed this constitutive characteristic of human existence ‘self-transcendence’.”
“The foundations of human dignity are to be found in the truth about man, and in his human freedom to form his instincts and passions according to the objective requirements of the Moral Order. As the Scriptures suggest, there is an unbreakable link between authentic freedom and truth (cf. John 8: 32); indeed, freedom attains its full development only by accepting the Truth. It follows that no genuine therapy or treatment for psychic disturbances can ever conflict with the moral obligation of the patient to pursue the truth and to grow in virtue. . . .
“Psychiatrists [and psychologists] must also feel themselves responsible for the social ramifications of their practice. This is especially true today, when there is ever more clearly a relationship between the appearance and aggravation of certain illnesses and mental disturbances [e.g., neuroses, psychoses], and the crisis of [authentic] values which [modernized] society is experiencing.”
(Address of His Holiness John-Paul II to the Members of the American Psychiatric Association and the World Psychiatric Association; Vatican, 04 January 1993)
It is possible and even probable, that Pope St John-Paul II has borrowed the term ‘self-transcendence’ from the writings of the psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl (1905–97, Austria), the founder of Logo(s)therapy. Frankl:
“(H)uman existence – at least as long as it has not been neurotically distorted – is always directed to something, or someone, other than itself, be it a meaning [Greek ‘logos’] to fulfill or another human being to encounter lovingly. I have termed this constitutive characteristic of human existence ‘self-transcendence’.”