Description
Book SynopsisFrom the beginnings of modern psychology to the mid-1960s, the complicated relationship between psychology and Catholicism is methodically investigated by Kugelmann, who aims to provide clarity in an area filled with emotion and opinion. This study will be of great interest to scholars and students of psychology and religious studies.
Trade Review'Kugelmann has done a masterful job of documenting a major set of developments with psychology and with US Roman Catholicism from obscurity, while integrating many diverse literatures and strands of scholarship in psychology, history, theology, philosophy, and their relevant subspecialties. Were the opening chapter required reading in every psychology of religion course, as well as every Christian seminary and pastoral counseling program, it would elevate the level of discourse in the field tremendously.' Brian H. McCorkle, Boston University
'This is an insightful study about the many relationships and the many forms of Catholicism and the equally pluralistic science of modern psychology. Well informed, Kugelmann gives a lucid and fair account of both the struggles and [the] encounters as they have taken place in the United States of America. Detailed and precise, the volume may well serve as a model for research into the complexities of the situation in other countries, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the contemporary relations between religion and psychology in general.' Jacob A. Belzen, University of Amsterdam
'Kugelmann has marshalled an extraordinary wealth of original archival research and a keen sensitivity to the historical, cultural, and theological world of twentieth-century Catholicism in telling the story of the encounter between scientific psychology and the Church. This volume is essential for any historian of the human sciences exploring the ways late modernity and religious institutional life met one another during the last century.' Vincent W. Hevern, S. J., Le Moyne College
'The author's great passion for his subject shines through this book, and I was certainly enlightened by his clear, detailed account of this very complex subject.' The Psychologist
Table of Contents1. An introduction; 2. The major fault line: modernism and psychology; 3. Neoscholastic psychology; 4. Psychology as the boundary: Catholicism, spiritualism, and science; 5. Psychoanalysis versus the power of will; 6. From out of the depths: Carl Jung's challenges and Catholic replies; 7. Institutionalizing the relationship; 8. Humanistic psychology and Catholicism: dialogue and confrontation; 9. Trading zones between psychology and Catholicism; 10. Crossings.