A popular psychiatrist offers new hope for real emotional health through the practice of Christian moral values
Introduction
Dr. Karl Menninger, author of the book "Man Against Himself", also wrote "Whatever Became of Sin?". He writes this book to outline an ethical system for the world, promoting to its readership a return to responsibility for one's actions, and for a renewed recognition of sin. The book he writes brings back the reality of sin and its effects on our moral consciousness, and all should find a way to face up to it. If we do acknowledge sin as a reality and take responsibility for its effects, we can gain real emotional health - a healthy maturity of the psyche.
The tendency to blame others for one's actions
Author Dr. Karl Menninger acknowledges the trend in some moral thinking that seeks to blame or deny responsibility for one's actions, which, in some opinions, can be interpreted as freedom of thought and speech. However, as individuals or nations, Dr. Menninger says that this direction of thinking increases the denial of consequences that have stemmed from one's actions - actions that were made without much deliberation, and therefore with a lack of maturity. Menninger emphasizes that this denial of responsibility will weaken one's moral health. He also adds that other psychiatrists in his field of expertise are even compounding the problem by "neglecting the availability of help for some individuals whose sins are greater than their symptoms and whose burdens are greater than they can bear"?
The book Whatever Became of Sin? was written in the 1970s. In writing the book, Dr. Karl Menninger consulted many authorities on the subject:
- the Reverend Richard Bollinger,
- the Reverend Gerard Daily, SJ,
- the Reverend Alfred Davies,
- Dr. Frederick J. Hacker,
- Dr. Seward Hiltner,
- Dr. Philip B. Holzman,
- the Reverend Carlyle Marney,
- Dr. Gardner Murphy,
- the Reverend Leslie A. Newman,
- Dr. Paul W. Pruyser,
- Dr. Sydney Smith,
- Professor Arnold Toynbee,
- Dr. Lewis F. Wheelock
- and many others.
Integrating moral values and medicine
The book is indeed an excellent read. It integrates the Christian moral value system with the discoveries of psychology and psychiatry. It explains very well how psychiatry can denigrate the importance of an ethical value system when it pushes its theories of "syndromes" to the extreme. And not only that. The "strictly syndrome" mentality can only aggravate an individual's perception of the problem - blocking the solution of a moral ethical standard - best of all a Christian one. With Dr. Karl Menninger's explanation and treatment of the problem in our modern time, a wise balance is attained by placing the knowledge of psychology and psychiatry at the service of a Christian ethical value system - wherein the individual takes responsibility for his own actions and also takes into consideration the weakness of personality or character caused by psychological factors in his family or environment.
A pocketbook worth reading and learning
This brief pocketbook can naturally, as author Ann Landers commented of the book, "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". It is quite a provocative treatise; truly informative and worth the time to read in one's lifetime - a gem of wisdom and knowledge to give time to, no matter how busy one may be in his work and career.
Themes and topics that are treated in the book
- A Brief and Biased Review of Moral History
- What Is Wrong?
- The Disappearance of Sin: An Eyewitness Account
- A New Social Morality
- Sin into Crime
- Sin into Symptom
- Sin as Collective Irresponsibility
- The Old Seven Deadly Sins (and Some New Ones)
- Sin, So What?
- The Bluebird on the Dung Heap
