Man Between Good and Evil
In the world we live in. ideas and values which once seemed clear-cut and unambiguous have bccomc dillputed questions.
Freedom and democracy, for example, are understood and interpreted quite differenlly in dilferent parts of the world.
People even hold tbe most diverse views as to wha1 it means to be human.
In the fields of ethk:s and morality, too, there ill a considerable divergence of viewpoints.
Institutions which confidently dispensed rules of behavior have lost their authority under tbe crossfire of critical anacks.
At one time there was a general consensus as to what was good and evil, but today for many the distinction is far from obvious.
What do good and evil mean? What is modem technologjc:al man to do about them?
The theologians are not in agreement on this point, my more than the philosophers.
Neither do sociologists and psychologists find it any easier to formulate or establish incontrovertible truths on tbe subject.
For cenruries the Ten Commandments were the yardstick of good and evil.
They seemed simple, comprehensible, clear enough for anyone.
Were they really? Are they still a valid and credible yardstick for us today?
I can only attempt to answer these questions from my experience as a psychologist and psyÂchotherapist, working with people whose psychological problems
make it difficult for them to get on with themselves and with life.
Although the Jungian form of therapy that I practice is not in general contradiction with c:ontemporary Judaeo-Christiao moral teachings, !here ue some imponant point of conRict.
One area of immediate difficulty is the question of aim: psychotherapy seeks to promote psychic health rather than holiness.
We are faced with this problem: is the aim to help peop let o attain ho liness and perfection o r to make them healthy?
If. as lung says, God cannot dwell in a sick soul, then a truly religious attitude and psychological equilibrium both presuppose health of mind.
When we see people whose wry perfectionism has made them ill, we arc forced to ask whether it is right lor them to pursue this course in the hope of becoming perfect, or whelber we should try to bring them back to a human sense of
proportion, sa that they can find health, balance, and peace of mind.
This leads to anotlter problem often encounlcred : should we follow the biblical prescription to health by being exclusively goad or should we give priority to health owr hypothetical moral infallibility?
No one can be “perfect,” and anyone who claims to have committed no evil has bc:en badly taught, since it is clearly stated in !he Bible that we are born in sin.
To try to rise above that is pride, which must be paid far with neurosis or some other kind of nemesis.
Take for example the commandment : “Thou shalt not steal.”
Naturally we would never tell somebody, “Steal and you will get better.”
Neither would we say, “Commit adultery and you will get better.”
But in this area of marriage and the relation between the sexes, where nature claims its due, we often come into difficulties with the commandments of the church_
The great outcry that bas arisen apinst celibacy in n:ccnt years is due in part to
the fact that celibacy makes some people neurotic, to the exlent that they require psychotherapy.
ConccminJ marriage itself, it is certainly questionable whether in Old Testament
times it was anything like what we know as marriage today.
People then did not just marry for love,
Even nowadays many people marry for money, position, or the right passport .
CoiiSider, for example, the following case of a married man with three children. His wife developed multiple sclerosis, an incUrable disease whose cause is still unknown and which can go on for decades.
This man was having a love affair with a woman who held an important post in his factory.
After they had hecn lovers for some years, the woman finally asked him to divorce his wife and marry her.
She was now 40, and she felt she could no longer go on sacrificing her life for his marriage.
The man came to me and asked me what he should do.
Leave his sick wife and his children or deny his friend the chance of marriage? Such questions cannot be answered.
From the family point of view the humane course was to give up his mistress and
stick to his wife and children.
But it was also unfair to leave the woman in the lurch and force her to prolong her sacrifice waiting indefinitely for this man.
So I answered that I could not make a decision for him, and that in such a situation one could only wait for God to decide.
Three years later the wife died and the man was able to marry his woman friend.
Perhaps nnother penon might have advised continuing the adultery on getting a divorce, in dealing with a case like this which is so commonplace.
It is wrong to treat mmiage as wbolly dependent on the fact that some priest or functionary has sanctioned It rather than on the real motive that brougbt the couple together.
It may be that the chun:h’s attitude whicb makes it so dillic:ult to get free from a marriage is no longer appropriate for the times we live in.
Of course, we psychologists and psytbotherapists often tend to rclativizc moral conccp!s, because we do not know what good nnd evil as thinp in themselves really are.
As conceptual principles, good and evil live in a vacuum.
We have to establish who did what, when:, how, and wbcn before we can say whether an action, in absolute terms, is good or evil.
We arc therefore uturally hesitant about the tendency to think in absolutes.
Goethe makes a valuable point here in his teacbing about colors: “Each color has a different effect, depending on its environmenl A blue surrounded by red is a different blue from one surrounded by yellow.”
The same is true of absolute commandments about good and ml.
The commandment tha t causes the most trouble in psychotherapy is “Honor thy fatbcr and thy mother.”
What “honor” means we are not told.
For some it might mean that a daughter.
inslcad or marrying, should stay at home and look after her parents in their old age.
Or that a son should remain single and avoid female company because his mother wants him to honor her by not belo!lling to any other woman.
Or that the children should emigrate and earn enough money to support their parrent in the old country.
Or that the son or daugh ter should become famous.
We all know mothen who complain : “What will the neighbors think if vou run around in a filthy state like that? You’re a disgrace to me whenever you’re not clean.”
Thereby they deprive their children of that vitally impotlalll period or life when
they should be playing with dirt.
Later these children come into therapy and we have to introduce them to finger-painting to make up for the playing with dirt that they missed as children.
So this commandment to honor one’s father and mother is one which we cannot define precisely.
All parents arc different, but aU would like their children to bring honor to them in some way or another.
The question is, in what way? The church cannot lay down exact instruclions.
It can be very healthy for children to be rude and disrespectful and it can also be a bad sign, depending on cin:nmstances.
A drunken father will evoke a very di1ferent reaction in his chidren from one who sits working at his desk day and night.
So this commandment provides an eJ<ample of the relalitivity of good and evil and of the need for eare and discrimination in assessing whether behavior contravenes
it or not.
The next problematical commandment is “Thou shalt not kill.” ~Jolande Jacobi, Masks of the Soul, Page 81-84
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