Well, aren't you falling for the modern purpose driven life craze? 
Of course, you can't find much of a purpose in life without God, but you can't find much meaning to life either, in particular, your suffering! (remember, Monty Python????) And what hope do you have to resolve your guilt, without Christ? Just being a good person or saving the rain forest or making a million dollars doesn't cut it. In other words, purpose is just one piece of the puzzle.
You can say, your purpose in life is to glorify God. That seems correct. But how does that resolve your fear, shame and guilt, when you mess up and offend your Maker? He has to have provided a way out for you. Otherwise, you're terrified of Judgment (to a degree that isn't motivating, but rather paralyzing). You're so overburdened with guilt (like ten tons on your back), that instead of being motivated, you can't get out of bed! And you're so ashamed of your weakness, that you pathetically try to hide from your Maker, rather than boldly approach Him. Fear, shame and guilt, Bam, right there. Where's the "modernism?"
Psychology is a modern concept attempting to explain the inner workings of Man with the distinct assumption that he is without a soul, so it fails from the outset. There is often reference to the 'spiritual' dimension, but it is really only used to refer to the bits that cannot be easily explained, or as a tool to work with patients. Spirituality is equated with Placebo.
Behavioral science merely observes Man's behavior given a set of circuмstances and as such has refined psychology or in some cases refuted it. I think it is useful to us as because it is strictly an observational science and its findings generally should not contradict the truth.
Catholicism on the other hand provides the answers in its moral theology (defining what is correct behavior), mysticism and liturgical life. It recognizes that without nourishment for the soul, the hope of attaining perfection is zero.
As for why people are ashamed of their weakness, etc, it is very simple but very difficult. What Christ taught in his parables and sermons, and what all the saints proved, is that humility is absolutely necessary for salvation. It's the first step, in my opinion. If we were humble enough, we would realize that God knows our every imperfection and that he doesn't mind that we have them, as such. It is a fact that most the quirks that predispose us to straying away in a certain direction will never go away, and God knows this. What is required is a recognition that we are imperfect, that we need perfecting and that through Christ is the only way this can occur.
Pride leads us to the inability to forgive ourselves, and so avoid seeking the forgiveness of God. This is of course putting the cart before the horse, but that is what pride leads us to do. The hardest problem is with habitual sin, because people seem not to think of sin beyond a single event requiring a single act of contrition, whereas in reality the contrite habitual sinner needs to be aware that he is embarking on a lifetime of work, something that is very unlikely to be fixed in a single visit to a confessional! Priests should be telling this in confessionals to their faithful.
Yeah, I think psychology is basically about how to control people and Catholicism is about how to be of service. So, one comes from love and the other from hate. I think that's clear, wether you mean Freud or Watson.
""Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years." –John B. Watson, Behaviorism, 1930"
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/watson.htmOn the other hand, people seek out help from psychology, because they have real needs and the best they're going to find, in my opinion, is a description of their problem and an explanation that if their life was perfect, they wouldn't be that way, but since it isn't, oh well, but you know, please pay me a bunch of money for basically doing nothing of much good. Thanks and I hope you don't kill yourself, before I squeeze the last penny out of you. In other words, it's a field that basically trains you to go out and take advantage of people. There's probably somebody here who's gonna be so outraged at me saying this, probably because they have their master's in psychology and a license to practice, but what did psychoanalysis provide, but years of expensive therapy, that basically led to patients having their morals corrupted and, not surprisingly, never really getting any better. And then Behaviorism is the same kind of thing. Read, "Hidden Persuaders." It's a way to trick people into doing what you want them to do. In other words, it's just about control and that's the critique that's constantly leveled by people today against religion! So that seems to be, to use a Freudian term, just a big fat "projection" of guilt, onto the victim.
Topic: Psychology and personality (Read 2621 times)