from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: Psychoanalysis vs Confession

IMPORTANT
For the time being we are now meeting at:
Gran Clavel (Café-Bar): Gran vía 11, esquina C/ Clavel, 28013—Madrid
(Please come early to make sure we get a place: if we are more than 6
people we'll be at the back)


Dear Friends,

I hope you had a good holiday these past few days and looking forward to
our meetings.

This Sunday we are discussing: Psychoanalysis vs Confession. The topic
seems too interesting to split into two different subjects.

The Sacrament of Penance in the Catholic Church (or the equivalent in
other religions) is an act of asking God to absolve any sins we
committed after baptism. The effect of confession is, of course, to
return our soul to a state of purity so that we can go to heaven after
death. The unintended consequence of this is that we can live our life
on this Earth more reassured of what will happen to us after we die, and
hence less stressed. But most important of all, confession should give
us peace of mind in our life.

The scope of Psychoanalysis is more of finding the causes for our
present state of mind by looking at events from the past that might have
affected our present mental health. Once the genesis of our mental state
is discovered we can start working at achieving the desired peace of mind.

Whilst both methodologies reflect their respective state of knowledge at
the time of their pinnacle, both treat people as the rational agent so
beloved in the 19th and early 20th century. But the old baggage that the
"We" or "I" is different and a superior entity than the body and even
more the brain, means that a vital source of our disquiet, ie the brain,
only became relevant in recent time.

This is not to say that the brain is the source of all our mental ills,
money and disagreeable partners or colleagues play their role, but by
excluding any biological causes for our disquiet we can then move on to
sort out our life and hopefully achieve peace of mind. And we all agree
that peace of mind is the gateway to happiness.

The question is whether confession is a quick and easy way to achieve
peace of mind whist we're still in control of the information we provide
our arbiters. Psychoanalysis requires more commitment and a more
detailed investigation into our life. We might even arrive at a
situation where we no longer have total control of the information we
provide our arbiter or therapist.

As for psychiatry and neurology we just have no idea what on Earth is
going on or being done to us.

The logical conclusion would, therefore, be to compare old "technology"
confession/psychoanalysis vs the new-kids-on-the-block
psychiatry/neurology. No doubt this would be a mammoth task, but would
it be a relevant and fair task to engage in?


Best Lawrence



tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
MeetUp https://www.meetup.com/PhiloMadrid-philosophy-group/

PhiloMadrid Meeting




from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: Psychoanalysis vs
Confession