James R. Beck

Self and Soul: Exploring the Boundary between Psychotherapy and Spiritual Formation

As the field of mental health increasingly turns its attention to spirituality, Christian counseling is busily investigating how spiritual formation relates to psychotherapy. At the heart of these concerns is the topic of the human soul. This article explores the meaning of “soul” in Scripture, in Greek philosophy, and in medieval spirituality as it impacts the present practice of psychotherapy, an enterprise that primarily deals with the self. Particular attention is given to the knowledge competencies regarding the soul that Christian counselors will need as they re-tool for adding spiritual formation to their counseling practices.

Elective Mutism in a Missionary Family: A Case Study

Elective Mutism is a rare disorder of childhood which is normally found in the context of severe family pathology and/or a multiplicity of individual pathology. However, the case study presented here represents an instance of elective mutism which does not have the normal features of attending pathology. The precipitating factors in the young girls background all relate to common features of missionary life: emigration, bilingualism, and in this case trilingualism. Included in this article is a brief literature review as well as a discussion of how this pathology in a missions context is similar to, yet different from, other instances of elective

Treatment of Spiritual Doubt among Obsessing Evangelicals

Obsessional ideation among evangelicals is often highly spiritual in tone and fearful in mood. After a discussion of the diagnosis and incidence of this symptom complex, a case study, a clinical survey, and a survey of Scripture are presented to demonstrate how these symptoms occur in evangelical populations. The article concludes with a survey of theories regarding the origin, development, and treatment of obsessional ideation and a discussion of how treatment of the symptom complex may have integrative implications for the evangelical therapist.

Missions and Mental Health: A Lesson from History

Biography has long served as an inspirational tool in the service of modern missions. But careful examination of past experiences with missionary pioneers can also yield valuable information about mental health issues that continue to have current relevance. The insanity of Dorothy Placket Carey (1756–1807) serves as such a lesson from history. This article will ask some “What if …?” questions regarding the story of Dorothy Carey followed by an exploration of some lessons of value that emerge from her life story. Finally the article will summarize the legacy Dorothy Carey has left us in the cause of mental health and missions.

Christian Anti-Psychology Sentiment: Hints of an Historical Analogue

This article explores the similarities between the current Christian anti-psychology movement and the creationist-evolutionary conflict earlier in this century. In this article, we argue that if indeed the movements are similar, we may be observing the beginnings of some important developments: a move by anti-psychology proponents for a centrist position and a new test for orthodoxy among conservative evangelicals–-anti-counseling and anti-psychology dogma.

The Role of Theology in the Training of Christian Psychologists

Educators involved in the training of Christian psychologists need to develop a rationale for the role of theology in the curriculum that would be a meaningful apologetic for secular colleagues, the Christian public, and the psychology student. Using the example of Peter Abelard, a 12th century scholastic, the author suggests three major roles that theology can play in the training curriculum for Christian psychologists. The paper concludes with a brief description of current approaches to theology in the curriculum and a modest proposal for teaching theology creatively in the psychology training setting.

Counseling and the Demonic: A Reaction to Page

Pages (1989) apology for taking seriously the role of the demonic in our counseling ministries is courageous in its call for a reexamination of biblical teachings. The article, however, seems to lack a central and unifying view of the precise nature of these phenomena. Several intriguing suggestions by Page are only minimally elaborated. Missing from the article are a set of criteria which one could use in differential diagnosis, and a method of reasoning which would help determine if direct demonic activity is or is not involved.

Women in Missions: A Pilot Study

Women have been and are a vital force in the North American missionary movement In this study an attempt is made to identify trends in the background and training of women currently being sent abroad as compared with those who went overseas thirty years ago. Data were collected comparing 1951–53 appointees with 1981–83 appointees on their levels of education, age, family background, spiritual experience, and other factors. Statistically significant differences between the two groups emerged on age, marital status, exposure to psychotherapy, cross cultural exposure, and family background. The study concludes with a discussion of how these results affect recruitment decisions by mission executives.

Mutuality in Marriage

A reexamination of the Ephesians 5 passage reveals that headship and submission are more related by Paul in this context to marital process than to marital structure. Moreover, headship and submission seem to be components of an underlying process of mutuality. Mutuality in turn, forms the dynamic capable of producing oneness, Gods aim for marriage. Counselors can help troubled marriages focus on a process of mutuality and thus provide them with a healing approach to the marriage relationship.

Christian Reflections on Stress Management

An enormous volume of literature has emerged in the past decade regarding stress and its management. As the Christian views this literature in psychology, an immediate impression is gratefulness for the contribution these advancements have made to Christs Church. In addition, one has some reservations regarding the almost value-free environment surrounding some of the literature as well as the tendency of a few authors in this field to expand stress management techniques into an all-embracing philosophy of life. It is helpful for Christians to understand stress and its management in the context of the more familiar death and dying spectrum of truth. Learning from stress may be more appropriate for the Christian than simply managing or reducing it.