The moral treatment of psychological disorder: A historical and conceptual study of selected twentieth century pastoral psychologists

This study sets forth and interprets the early history of the pastoral psychology movement in America with primary reference to the published works of the two "founding fathers," Elwood Worcester (1860-1940) and Anton T. Boisen (1876-1965). Additionally it analyzes the impact of these, and allied theorists, on debates occurring within the larger arena of mental hygiene theory regarding the relation between psychology and theology. H. Richard Niebuhr's conceptual scheme involving four historically recurring types of the relation between Christ and culture is used to order these theories and debates.;An Episcopal clergyman and Leipzig educated philosopher-psychologist, Worcester established an innovative psychotherapy clinic at Emmanuel Church in Boston in 1906--an action which engendered considerable controversy among Boston area physicians and psychologists. This service, involving medical doctors and psychologically educated clergy gained nationwide publicity and spawned similar efforts in other American cities. The Emmanuel Movement, as it was popularly called, resembles an early experiment in community psychology, combining older traditions of moral treatment and the "new" psychology. A student of psychic research, Worcester and colleagues in the Boston area anticipated later developments in transpersonal psychotherapy.;Anton Boisen, a patient of Elwood Worcester, recovered from psychosis to found the Clinical Pastoral Training Movement and to become a noteworthy researcher in the psychology of religion. Boisen demonstrated a unique approach to the relation between mental disorder and personal guilt which foreshadowed the "moral psychotherapy" proposed by O. H. Mowrer. The Clinical Training Movement contributed to the promulgation of mental health concepts through churches and temples--and thus through American society. Pastoral psychologists also gave a voice to religious concerns in the larger world of therapeutic psychology--a presence discernable through the informational media of therapeutic psychology and at educational institutions such as the Menninger Clinic.;A theological analysis suggests that the cultural Christianity which both Worcester and Boisen espoused, while commending their ideas to the "cultured despisers of religion," was unable to portray the transcendence and personhood of God.;This study concludes by drawing out implications of the early pastoral psychologists for an analysis of modern psychotherapeutic "faiths" and for the education of community healers--an education involving the transformation of consciousness and growth in virtue.