M: Now, we both know that the study of human behavior is not an exact science. Q: I will speak for myself. I know that no science is an exact science but that every science does what it does differently from religion. M: Much of what we as therapists do cannot be quantified. Q: Quantification and science are not equivalent. M: You also seem to categorize religion as universally repressive ("religiously inspired narrow convictions"). Q: "Almost all religions" is my phrase. That is not universal. I did not use the word "repressive" because I obeject to it on empirical and theoretical grounds. I said that almost all religions have narrowed the boundaries of which ssexual expressions they are likely to try to understand and accept. M: I can understand your reservations about religious oppression in light of this era of the "Christian Cohalition," Kansas' confusion with science and religion, and the overall tone of conservativism in this country. Q: That is a very tiny part of my reservations. I am also concerned with obscurantism in ther profession of psychotherapy and the question of why applied scientists are promoting any religious ideas--even ideas more progressive than those of fundamentalists. M: Some of the current trends make me a bit squeamish also. Q: I was talking about the impositions on therapists' thinking as applied scientists when the are encouraged to promote religious thinking. And I wonder on what grounds their licence can be justified as needed as a health professional when they prectice relgion in a country that has freedom of religion. This confusion of applied science and religion has implications far beyond "oppressive" attitudes toward sexuality (your term, "oppressive," not mine). What I am concerned with may or may be oppressive. I am concerned with the ways religions in general have not adoped a scientific outlook toward human behavior in general and toward the full range of human sexuality in particlar. M: It can be liberating. I had one client in who was struggling with her relationship, because she felt guilty about her faith not being enough, and that she shouldn't "worship" this individual so much. WHile she didn't literally mean "worship," the relationship seemed to shake her belief that her faith should be all the assurance she needed in life. Using her frame of reference, we explored how the Creator made people to live and work together, and that we were here for a purpose, not to just keep our eyes on the heavens, but to live. All I did was help her to her own conclusion, and she absolutely lit up. Q: I am not interested in scond guessing or offering a critique of your methods. I can say I certainly would have handled this situation differently, however. M; Religion is an integral part of many of our clients' mindsets. J: When you refer to religion as "mindset" you are not taling about religion but about psychology. M: It has a great deal to do with many people's mental health. J: Yes, it has to do with mental health because it is a mmindset, which, like other mindsets, can be studied scientifically. M: If you have a client that belongs to a traditional Native American culture, you better believe that every J: Again, when you refer to "belief system" (as with "mindsets") you are talking about psychology and not about religion. Some belief systems make us feel terrible and some don't. Belief systems that narrowly constrict the full range of human sexuality that is likely to be understood or accepted are belief systems that are contrary to the belief system of an applied science of psychology. M: If you have a fundamentalist Christian client, J: I prefer you speak for yourself, and I'll speak for myself. M: If you're hung up on the term "spiritual growth" than you should be equally bothered by Maslow's "self-actualization" which is equally fuzzy in terms of definition. J: There are degrees of fuzziness in all concepts. Some are so fuzzy as to be unspecifiable apparently. Self-actualization has been ably defined and empirically investigated by Maslow and others. M: I doubt if there are any tests out there to J: Presumably this refers to your assumption that science is the same as quantification. M: I don't know what your religious beliefs are, or if you are atheist, but if you are uncomfortable when one of your J; There is much more than this to consider.
BUT.....I personally do not see religion or the talk of it in psychotherapy as necessarily constricting or imposing external sexual values on the client.
aspect of that individual is influenced by their belief system.
you'd do well to work with them in their frame of reference too.
measure self-actualization.
clients wants to bring up religious concerns, then you should explain your difficulties to the client and refer
them.
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