CURE OF MIND AND CURE OF SOUL, by Joseph Goldbrowser (Boras & Oates, 7s. 6d.).
pR. GOLDBRUNNER'S previous work "Holiness in Wholeness" was remarkably well received by Catholic reviewers, but I find the present brief book a difficult one. It is a translation from the German by Stanley Godman.
It has arisen, Fr. Goldbrunner tells us in his preface, "from the encounter between depth psychology and the cure of souls which has now been taking place, in theory and practice, for many years". This sentence itself displays a vagueness which seems to pervade the work.
And the following sentence (among many others) demands some pondering: "By taking the concept of the person as a criterion it is possible to incorporate the position of depth psychology in the Christian conception of man...."
There are, however, clearer passages. For instance: "Professional life compels the soul to put on a uniform. For example, the teacher must pay attention to the effect he is having on a subordinate group....
"The preponderance ol the person as teacher. applied to begin
with at the right time and place, gradually becomes a habit and taken for granted.... He gradually begins to schoolmaster everything and everybody."
The 'persona'
THIS gives what I gather to be Fr. Goldbrunner's basic thesis: namely that the present-day way of life tends to produce a mask (or persona) which obscures the real person, whereas we ought to deal with each other as genuine, unmasked persons. The same essential idea was stressed by Fr. W. J. Lawson, Si, in his recent work "Person to Person"; and it is eminently true. The task of "depth psychology" (which, as its name implies. probes below the "threshold of consciousness" into the -depths of the soul") is to draw out the real and genuine person. Fr. Cioldbrunner devotes Part One (nine chapters) to what is mainly theory; Part Two (four chapters) to practice "though a few overlappings prove to be unavoidable".
Yet his writing concerning practice and procedure-and hence cure-seems to me to be aggravatingly elusive. Still, it will be worth while for priests, teachers, and Catholic psychologists to obtain and peruse this book-at the very moderate price of 7s. 6d.-and to sec what they can make of a.
W.J.R.