Putting the Soul
back in Psychology!
Review and Critique of the article “Mental Pathology” in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia online
Pilcz, A. (1911) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11542b.htm#IIIj
by L K Miller, MA, LHP
The article, with its extremely secular slant, is very unlike the serious academic articles of the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, which typically show and separate the various "schools of thought", including but not limited to those within Catholicism. Telling, as well as surprisingly, in no part of the article are any Doctors of the Catholic Church quoted, or any Scripture legitimately used. As shall be exposed, the article, titled “Mental Pathology”, published in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, is heretically in disagreement with Catholic teaching and seriously lacking in scientific facts.
Heresy
The entire article negates and even contradicts what is the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will of human beings. The article begins by only stating that the “mental facilities” of human beings are the various parts of the brain. This is in direct contradiction to the writings of Dr. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dr. St. Augustine, Aristotle, and the teachings and doctrines of the Catholic Church of Rome on the subject of what this article calls and defines as “mental facilities”.
The article continues down the physiological only path with the following statement:
“The higher and specifically psychical functions, and indeed all psychical processes (attention, mental moods, will, etc.) are localized in the association centres, the entire massive frontal lobes serving exclusively as such.”
So now the Catholic Encyclopedia is officially contradicting itself (see articles on the “Will”, “Soul”, “Immortality”, and the “Summa” by Doctor of the Church St. Thomas Aquinas at newadvent.org) through publishing this article, by teaching that the “will” of human beings, which is always free, is the brain. This is absolute direct heresy.
Unfortunately, this heresy is nothing new, for modern Psychology and Psychiatry have believed and both directly and indirectly taught, the philosophical lies that the “intellect” and “will” of the immaterial soul, are the brain, thereby secularizing Psychology and Psychiatry and reducing human beings to the intellectual/psychological level of brute animals. This is the primary underlying philosophy of all fields of modern Psychology and Psychiatry, not just Behavioral Psychology.
According to Catholic teaching and doctrine, the “will” is never “localized” in the brain, but this is exactly what is quoted above from the article “Mental Pathology”. This quote is in direct contradiction to what Doctors of the Catholic Church, particularly Aquinas and Augustine, have written on the subject of the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will of human beings. It is common knowledge among credible psychology researchers that no brute animal can develop a psychological disorder; aka “mental disease”. It is no coincidence that brute animals do not have a will that is free nor an immaterial intellect.
This erroneous term "mental disease" in the “Mental Pathology” article, is linked to a definition of “Insanity”, of which is accurate and contradicts the “Mental Pathology” article's premise. The definition of “insanity” in the Catholic Encyclopedia as quoted from the “Century Dictionary” is as follows: “A seriously impaired condition of the mental functions, involving the intellect, emotions, and will, or one or more of these faculties, exclusive of temporary states produced by and accompanying intoxications or acute febrile diseases.”
In human beings, the will and intellect are solely powers of the immaterial soul, which is the form and animator of the entire body. Therefore our will cannot be localized in any part or whole of the brain. As Aquinas teaches:
“Now, it is clear from what we have said above (I:75:3; I:76:1 ad 1), that some operations of the soul are performed without a corporeal organ, as understanding and will. Hence the powers of these operations are in the soul as their subject.”1
“All the powers are said to belong to the soul, not as their subject, but as their principle; because it is by the soul that the composite has the power to perform such operations.”2
“All such powers are primarily in the soul, as compared to the composite; not as in their subject, but as in their principle.”3
“As we have said already (Articles 5, 6, and 7), all the powers of the soul belong to the soul alone as their principle. But some powers belong to the soul alone as their subject; as the intelligence and the will. These powers must remain in the soul, after the destruction of the body.”4
In addition to this article claiming that the free “will” is “localized” in the brain, it erroneously claims that “mental moods”, which is a direct general reference to all human psychological emotions and feelings, are also stated as “localized” in the brain, by this article. This is an additionally false unfounded statement, which also contradicts the writings of Dr. St. Thomas Aquinas in his "Summa" on the subjects of specific passions, virtues, and vices and other emotional sins. For example:
“Secondly, they may be understood as determining the act of sense on the part of the object sensed. Thus the soul senses some things with the body, that is, things existing in the body, as when it feels a wound or something of that sort; while it senses some things without the body, that is, which do not exist in the body, but only in the apprehension of the soul, as when it feels sad or joyful on hearing something.”5
“But nature never fails in necessary things: therefore the intellectual soul had to be endowed not only with the power of understanding, but also with the power of feeling.”6
“Augustine [ ] (Gen. ad lit. xii, 24) [ ] says that the "body feels not, but the soul through the body, which it makes use of as a kind of messenger, for reproducing within itself what is announced from without.”7
The “body feels not, but the soul through the body” is evident in 2 ways. One, by the fact that when we are physically suffering and we become distracted by something intellectual that we enjoy, especially a combination of visual and auditory entertainment, then we either no longer feel the physical pain we were experiencing, or the degree of physical pain greatly decreases. This occurs because our immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will is sufficiently distracted from focusing on the physical pain.
Two, the “body feels not, but the soul through the body”, is why some people desire to self-mutilate when they feel depressed. When one is having psychological emotional suffering and one physically wounds themselves, the psychological emotional suffering seems to “stop” (be it temporarily). This occurs because the psychological emotional suffering (an abstract concept caused by abstract intellectual acts) is not located in the brain/body but rather is chosen by the immaterial soul. The immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will, where the psychological emotional suffering is “located”, becomes distracted by the physical pain that he or she chose to inflict on him or herself and automatically changes focus onto the physical pain instead of the emotional suffering, thereby experiencing temporary relief of the emotional suffering being caused by what the person: likes, dislikes, wants/desires, expects, believes, and thinks regarding faith and morals (all abstract concepts). This is a direct reason how we can know that those who frequently tattoo their bodies are suffering from depression.
Misnomer Vocabulary
The word “disease” and “illness” strictly mean what is biological/physiological, not psychological (the study of the soul, from the Greek and Latin). The authors of the information in this article, as well as all of the fields of modern Psychology and Psychiatry, erroneously use the words "disease" and “illness” because they lack the knowledge of the real study of Psychology (the study of the soul), including what really is the soul. But this is not surprising since all of modern Psychology and Psychiatry since soon after the Protestant Reformation, primarily through the Free Masons within the University Systems, began to negate the existence of the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will in its correct form and called it the "brain".
From a psychological analyzation of the readily available historical documentation, the heresy of the human intellect and will being the brain with the negation of the existence of the immaterial soul in modern Psychology and Psychiatry, seems to have developed directly following Martin Luther's heresy of the complete negation of the existence of the free will, while the so called “enlightened” university professors of Germany, decided to make what is psychological (the study of the soul) and psychiatric (the healing of the soul) pretend to be biological/physiological in an attempt to fix their self-inflicted inferiority complexes by trying to reach what they believed to be equal status with the medical community.
There is a plethora of encyclopedia information freely available to show this. Some of the officially documented instigators of the secular physiological movement in Psychology and Psychiatry, including the “brain only” philosophical heresy, as well as many other erroneous philosophies were: "philosopher" Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling in his work 'Naturphilosophie' (1775 – 1854), Freemason and first self-proclaimed psychiatrist Johann Christian Reil (1759 – 1813), Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776 – 1841), Sir Alexander Crichton (1763 – 1856), and many others who followed suit, including but not limited to atheist Sigmund Freud.
Next, taken in the entire context and premise of the article “Mental Pathology”, the following generalized unfounded statement from this article is, in other words, directly stating that all psychological disorders are caused by the brain, based on the philosophies (not science) that the “will” and “intellect” (mind) are the brain and not the immaterial soul.:
“unhealthy changes in this latter [referring to the “brain cortex”] disturb the normal psychical processes, that is, they lead to mental disease.”
The term “lead to” is known and understood to mean “cause”. This opinion is declared without any attempt to even scientifically prove it, much less using the standard manipulative catch phrases such as: “the studies show” or “the research supports”.
Now, if by “mental disease” this article meant only medical physiological factually proven diseases of the brain, such as actual “Autism” (not “Aspergers”) or all forms of “Mental Retardation” or “Dementia” for examples, then the statement quoted above from the article would be true, but the fact is that what this article means by “mental disease” includes labeled psychological disorders of which no one has ever been able to show any scientific facts as to there being a physiological cause; for assumed probability based on philosophical lies and other assumptive correlations is not scientific or medical fact.
The entire article uses “mental”, (which also refers to and means the ‘mind’ and the ‘intellect’), as to only mean “the brain” and claims that the article is solely about diseases of the brain, but Aquinas correctly defines “mental” quite differently:
“Therefore it is impossible for the intellectual principle to be a body. It is likewise impossible for it to understand by means of a bodily organ; since the determinate nature of that organ would impede knowledge of all bodies; as when a certain determinate color is not only in the pupil of the eye, but also in a glass vase, the liquid in the vase seems to be of that same color. Therefore the intellectual principle which we call the mind or the intellect has an operation per se apart from the body. Now only that which subsists can have an operation "per se." For nothing can operate but what is actual: for which reason we do not say that heat imparts heat, but that what is hot gives heat. We must conclude, therefore, that the human soul, which is called the intellect or the mind, is something incorporeal and subsistent.”8
Again, this use of the word “mental” as referring only to the brain and physiology in such a context would be acceptable if the authors remained on the topic of physiology and that was all that was written about in this article. But this is not the case. The authors proceed to show how this article is only about Psychological Disorders and immorality, which they call “psychical” and “varieties of insanity”, while they simultaneously add to the confusion for their readers by mixing into their diagnostic list of psychological labels, physiological terms such as “senile dementia”, and what at first appears as physiological only mental retardation called, “imbecility, weakmindedness”, but whose explanation is an irrational hodgepodge of both moral / psychological and physiological examples.
Unfortunately, mixing the categories, methods, and theories of what is physiological with what is psychological has been standard procedural error throughout the history of modern Psychology and Psychiatry since the so called “Enlightenment” (in reality the Endarkenment), in order to try and pretend that these fields of science are a medical physiological/biological science rather than what they truly are, a philosophical one.
Unbalanced “balance”
Prior to the article listing its labeled descriptions of “varieties of insanity”, the authors attempt or pretend, as the case may be, to balance themselves out as they say:
“In very many instances we are entirely ignorant of any direct cause and can only interpret the unstable disposition as due to a strong hereditary taint. In many forms of mental disease we know absolutely nothing concerning the causes.”
The authors fail to balance themselves with this statement in the following four ways:
1) it assumes in the same statement that the "only" possible interpretation of cause; (assumption of cause) is “a strong hereditary taint”,
2) in context of the entire article, it uses the misnomer “mental disease” to include Psychological Disorders,
3) it never clarifies which “many forms” of “mental disease” it assumes and erroneously uses the royal “we”, “we know absolutely nothing concerning the cause”, and
4) the generalized assumption asserting the “brain” is the “cause” as an “absolute”, is consistently repeated in various ways throughout the article as already shown.
Then suddenly the article seems to do a complete 180 degree turn by making a statement that contradicts the article’s entire premise of psychological disorders being hereditary and caused by the brain:
“If the teachings of Christianity were to be generally followed, there would very rarely be a paretic, since for the most part syphilis is acquired only from illegitimate intercourse; there would be no alcoholism; and the untold distress caused by mental disturbance would be spared mankind.”
By stating that all “mental disturbance” is the absence of general obedience to the teachings of Christianity, the authors are making all Psychological Disorders objectively sins, which I wholly agree with and have proven as moral theological fact throughout my other writings (see my Blog: P.O.R.T.A.L at www.theologyofthesoul.org).
Literally the authors state that if everyone “generally followed” “the teachings of Christianity” that no psychological disorders would exist, which is commonly observably known to be false due to the vast amount of Christians sitting in the church pews suffering from Psychological Disorders such as, but not limited to, Depression, Bipolar, Anxiety, Alcoholism, Eating Disorders, OCD, Personality Disorders, etc.
But the only reason this statement about following Christianity to prevent “mental disturbance”, including but not limited to "alcoholism" and "untold distress" is false, is due to the word “generally”. No one can pick and choose what they feel like obeying regarding what is objective Truth+Love+Virtues; i.e. Jesus the Christ, and then expect not to develop some type and degree of Psychological Disorder, if one fully understands what psychological disorders actually are.
Failing to follow; i.e. obey, any of Jesus' Moral Truths in any way is a sin. All real psychological disorders are nothing more than varying degrees and combinations of irrational/false/wrong/bad: attractions, likes, dislikes, wants/desires, expectations, beliefs, thoughts, and their resulting emotions and feelings, words and external actions; all of which are morally qualifyable being originally chosen by the free will and intellect of the individual, regardless of degree of culpability, in combination with some degree of demonic influence be it: temptation, obsession, or mild possession, as explained in the Theology Of the Soul Psychology Institute’s, “10 Steps to Lasting Healing and Sanctity”.
In other words, being a “general” follower of Christianity; i.e. a follower of Jesus the Christ, as subjective as the term “general” is used, is not sufficient to avoid causing oneself a psychological disorder, nor is it sufficient cooperation with Jesus Christ in order to receive Lasting Healing. For a "general" follower of Christianity can be a mediocre, or even a bad Christian. For example, those deemed “Cafeteria Catholics” are “general” followers of Christianity, many of whom are in the state of mortal sin.
But then we see that the authors are not really contradicting themselves, but go on to immediately disagree with their own statement as if they think they are being rhetorical or debating themselves in order to try and prove themselves right. As such, throughout the article it is assumed, generalized, and stated as if fact, that psychological disorders are caused by the brain and are hereditary, with "alcoholism" being a primary example used, again, with no scientific facts to prove any of it, but based solely on opinion/theory declared as if fact; for example, by using the phrase “it is also certain”:
“..., it is also certain that a great proportion, even the majority, of habitual drinkers are severely burdened by heredity, and start as psychopathic inferiors. They are not degenerate because they drink, but they drink because they are degenerate, and alcoholism merely destroys an already ailing nervous system.”
This objectively arrogant statement is literally saying that only “degenerate” people, which these authors claim they are born being, habitually drink alcohol, because their nervous system is already ailing from hereditary conception.
The term “degenerate” means: “an immoral or corrupt person”, or “morally inferior”. Thereby directly stating in this article that “immorality” is caused by the brain/nervous system and is genetic (hereditary), which is a complete heresy against Catholic Moral Theology. And for the above quote to even be considered as rational, the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will of human beings could not exist, thereby reducing human beings to a brute animal. This article, Behavioral Psychology in particular, as well as all of modern Psychology and Psychiatry in general, reduces and has been reducing human beings to the functioning of brute animals by negating the free will and claiming the intellect to be the brain, rather than both being powers of the human immaterial soul.
The intellectual and free will powers of the immaterial soul operate without the brain and are primary over the brain as we have already quoted from Dr. St. Thomas Aquinas. These Truths cannot be negated simply because real structural brain damage, including but not limited to a tumor, a lesion, or a brain injury, can prevent the soul: intellect (mind) and free will from expressing itself, and from receiving material sensory information, according to the degree and type of structural damage. One Truth does not negate another. Nor do any type or degree of hormonal changes cause emotions much less psychological disorders, which can only expose or exacerbate already existing intellectual perspectives and attitudes of the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will.
Furthermore, regarding alcoholism, it is also Catholic teaching that lack of sobriety is a sin as is clearly shown throughout Scripture. And personal sin cannot be primarily/originally physiologically caused nor hereditary. But the one and only time this article even alludes to Scripture, the Scripture is taken out of its context, twisted, misinterpreted, and misapplied in the failed attempt to support the interior and exterior personal sin behaviors of alcohol addiction and abuse as hereditary:
“The true cause of drunkenness lies primarily in the individual's constitution, and may frequently be traced to the ancestors. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons, even to the third and fourth generation.”
The real Scripture verse in context is this:
“Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:3-6; (Douay-Rheims Bible)
From this context, the way this Scriptural verse is used in the article is manipulative and false. More correctly used in this Scripture quote is the term “iniquity”, not “sin”. Iniquity in this context has to refer to the guilt or the consequences, not the sin itself, because God cannot cause anyone to sin. In addition, the quote is only referring to those who hate God.
This article is in support and promotion of the continued secularization of Psychology and Psychiatry, which was originally and has always been one of the primary agendas of the “Enlightenment”, “Modernism”, and Free Masonry. With their obvious misunderstandings and philosophical errors of what the soul is, due to their false and unfounded philosophies on what the brain can do, while consistently trying to negate one Truth with another using misnomer vocabulary such as “disease”, these authors draw the false conclusion that:
“In short, the question whether the soul through its passions or burdens can make itself diseased must in general, according to modern experience, be answered negatively, or the possibility of such causative combinations may be acknowledged only with important reservations and the greatest restrictions.”
This is again, not a balance on the subject, as it is impossible for there to be 2 primary first causes of psychological disorders existing at the same time. This entire article completely irrationally mixes and compares what is physiological with what is psychological with the underlying philosophical error that they are one in the same. The primary cause of all actual psychological disorders being the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will would mean that the brain and hereditary cannot be the primary cause, but which this article repeatedly assumes and claims as fact, with no scientific facts to support it. The “modern experience” as subjective as that is, does not constitute scientific fact, much less objective philosophical Truth.
Ignorance of Moral Theology
The list of psychological disorders included in this article, which are wrongly termed “mental disease”, use some of what are now considered outdated terminology or definitions that have not been professionally used for decades are:
“Melancholia” (a.k.a. Depression / Despair)
“Alcoholism” (falsely called "mental disease")
“Pathological Intoxication”
“Juvenile insanity”
“Chronic delusion (paranoia)”
“Epileptic psychosis”
“Hysterical psychosis” (a.k.a. a reference to one of the so called “Personality Disorders” Histrionic)
“Compulsory ideas” (a.k.a. Obsession or “flight of ideas”)
“Menstrual psychosis” (a.k.a. PMS)
“Impulsive psychosis” (a.k.a. OCD)
“Sexual psychopathy, anomalies of the sexual life” (a.k.a. Homosexuality in all forms, including Transgender, as well as: Pedophilia, Fetishism, Sadism, Masochism, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Frotteurism, Transvestite, and Sex Addiction).
This list of “sexual psychopathy...” are objective sins, in addition to pornography use and masturbation, according to the definitions of sin of the Catholic Church of Rome. Therefore how can these be claimed and referenced as a “disease” caused by the “brain” and “hereditary” in a Catholic Encyclopedia article, with no explanation of the doctrine of the Catholic Church to balance it? The publication of this article with the approval of Bishops is a red flag showing what the Church leadership in general erroneously believes. The article tries to make it look like any one of these vices/moral depravity, are not a sin, by claiming as if fact (“knowledge”), that, “pathological abnormalities of the sexual impulse”, as the article is manipulatively calling them in order to try and negate the free will, are physiologically and hereditarily caused because that is exactly what this article means by its use of the term “mental disorder”:
“...the knowledge that what is so frequent is not always a disgusting vice and depravity, but often a mental disorder.”
The following quote is simply another attempt to rationalize that there is no sin involved in psychological disorders, which the article mislabels, “mental disease”. And because these authors begin with the philosophical belief premise that all psychological disorders are physiological only; caused by the brain and hereditary, they erroneously interpret everything by this physiological only paradigm and try to make everything fit into that paradigm:
“In the question of moral responsibility or liability (from the theological or legal standpoint) a further and very important question arises. Mental soundness implies freedom of the will, while mental disease destroys it.”
First, the authors are not asking a question, so it is manipulative to state that this is a question, while making an assumptive statement. Second and most important, this assumption is stated as if it is objective fact while based on the philosophical error that the “will” is “localized” in the brain as stated in the beginning of this article, and the assumption that psychological disorders (which this article included in the term “mental disease”) are caused by the brain and heredity with no scientific facts to prove it. Third, this moral theological claim being in direct reference to include all psychological disorders, while this article uses the misnomer term “disease” of the “brain” to refer to psychological disorders, rejects the true definitions of both the soul and the term Psychology, and uses the term “mental” to mean only the brain, is thereby
stating as if it is an absolute fact that there is no culpability whatsoever in all psychological disorders, which is an absolutely false philosophical belief.
Next, the authors of this article expose their physiological bias and heresies against Catholic Moral Theology even further, by reducing immorality to a physiological function by comparing “imbecility”, defined as physical mental retardation, to immorality and calling immorality “moral imbecility”:
“The same may be said of moral imbecility, which passes by insensible gradations from the undoubtedly healthy to the irresponsible, superficial, sensual, and violent individual.”
Then the article further tries to justify its physiological philosophies by stating the widely believed assumption that “menstrual psychosis” (a.k.a. psychological/emotional aspects of PMS) is physiologically caused, while wrongly generalizing it to all women. These conclusions are made through erroneous assumptive correlations not through observable factual medical science.
It is not observable factual medical science to claim that morally qualifiable behaviors (irritability, anxiety, impatience, depression, perfectionism, and being controlling), which become more pronounced in many women, as well as men, when hormone fluctuations occur, are physiologically caused and not possibly simply exacerbated or exposed by the hormone fluctuations. This would apply to Post Partum Depression as well.
Assumptions are not physiological science, but rather the prideful failure to do proper discernment with Jesus the Christ. It is an assumptive correlation that just because A exists (menstruation and/or hormone changes) while B is happening (an increase in observable sinful behavior), then that means that the “root” is “physiological”. Especially when the correct definitions of sin/immorality and the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will are being completely negated on the subject:
“The same may be said of menstrual psychosis, which shows its physiological roots in the increased general nervousness of every woman at the menstrual period.”
This statement negates the absolute probability that the hormone fluctuations at the time of the menstruation simply expose and exacerbate the sinful level of functioning that already exists in the person; i.e. immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will of the woman. So that, if the interior sinful behavior didn’t already exist inside the person’s soul, there would be nothing to be exposed or exacerbated when the hormones fluctuate. This can easily be shown by those who become permanently healed of their sinful behaviors that used to increase in frequency during the time of hormone fluctuations, and after being permanently healed, these sins now no longer occur during the same time period.
And again these authors try unsuccessfully to look balanced, while seeming to show some ignorance of Moral Theology, by making the following ambiguous statements:
“...and the question of freedom of will cannot be answered by a simple yes or no, but requires a strictly individual weighing of all the conditions of the concrete act.”,
while trying to use the example:
“Or the matter may be such that one and the same individual, by reason of his mental abnormality, may be completely responsible for one crime, and irresponsible for another. A kleptomaniac, for instance, certainly commits a theft in a condition of irresponsibility; he must be held to answer, however, for another type of crime, for instance, an act of immorality.”
Remember that, “mental abnormality” is used to only mean the brain in this article, while they are calling it psychological ("psychical"), which is a contradiction in objective reality. These authors repeatedly display their philosophical errors in believing that psychological disorders, as exampled here with kleptomania, to be caused by the brain and heredity as shown throughout other statements already addressed from this article.
“Irresponsibility” is clearly being used to mean that the person is not responsible. And the authors seem to be ignorant of the fact that “theft” by a “kleptomaniac” itself is an act of immorality; for this type of person never steals based on an objective need. To be labeled a “kleptomaniac”, a person has to be old enough and free enough from external pressures to be fully responsible for their immoral choice to steal. Habitualness of a sin can make a sin even graver according to Catholic teaching documented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
What is the primary cause of an act (interior or exterior) or a failure to hinder an act (interior or exterior), whether it is primarily the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will, or the brain/body alone, is a major aspect of how one determines whether the “freedom of will” applies. These authors' erroneous philosophical belief that all “mental abnormality” is the “brain” and “hereditary”, automatically leads them to draw wrong conclusions.
In Conclusion
These many psychological and moral theological lies uncovered, and even more not quoted from the original article, have been taught throughout the history of modern Psychology and Psychiatry since at least the 1700s. Therefore this is not shocking or the worst thing about this article. The worst thing about this article is that it is published in the Catholic Encyclopedia with the Catholic Churches stamps of approval, the "Nihil Obstat" and "Imprimatur", through some of Her now deceased Bishops, as if all statements are objective Truth and not in opposition to Catholic teaching. This grievously puts yet another stain on and further tarnishes the credibility of the leadership for The Catholic Church of Rome.
As a result of these so called “credible” stamps of approval by the Church leadership, millions of even highly educated people with no or poor development in proper discernment with Jesus the Christ, will blindly believe everything this article “Mental Pathology” says without question. When God and His morality is separated from any subject regarding human beings, as it has been since at least the late 1700's within Psychology and Psychiatry, lies will be believed and taught. The problems with this article, “Mental Pathology” is best summed up by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who recognized the irrationality within the modern Psychology and Psychiatric fields and said:
“One cannot take the methods and conclusions of one science and apply them indiscriminately to another science. Each has its own method and is entitled to that method.” “Every particular science has its own domain; its own method.” “And a good thinker will not allow the methods and the categories and the theories to overflow into other domains.”
-Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, (Television Series, “Life is Worth Living”, Episode, “How to Think”, 1955)
References
1., 2., 3., First Part (Prima Pars), Question 77. The powers of the soul in general, Article 5. Whether all the powers of the soul are in the soul as their subject?. In The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Online Edition Copyright © 2016 by Kevin Knight. Retrieved March 14th, 2018 from New Advent:http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1077.htm
4. First Part (Prima Pars), Question 77. The powers of the soul in general, Article 8. Whether all the powers remain in the soul when separated from the body?. In The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Online Edition Copyright © 2016 by Kevin Knight. Retrieved March 14th, 2018 from New Advent:http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1077.htm
5. First Part (Prima Pars), Question 77. The powers of the soul in general, Article 5. Whether all the powers of the soul are in the soul as their subject?. In The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Online Edition Copyright © 2016 by Kevin Knight. Retrieved March 14th, 2018 from New Advent:http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1077.htm
6. First Part (Prima Pars), Question 76. The union of body and soul, Article 5. Whether the intellectual soul is properly united to such a body?. In The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Online Edition Copyright © 2016 by Kevin Knight. Retrieved March 14th, 2018 from New Advent:http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1076.htm
7. First Part (Prima Pars), Question 84. How the soul while united to the body understands corporeal things beneath it, Article 6. Whether intellectual knowledge is derived from sensible things?. In The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Online Edition Copyright © 2016 by Kevin Knight. Retrieved March 14th, 2018 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1084.htm
8. First Part (Prima Pars), Question 75. Man who is composed of a spiritual and a corporeal substance: and in the first place, concerning what belongs to the essence of the soul, Article 1. Whether the soul is a body?. In The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas. Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Online Edition Copyright © 2016 by Kevin Knight. Retrieved March 14th, 2018 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1075.htm