Preliminary Philosophical Treatise on Psychology

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

The Nature of All Authentic Sciences and thus Psychology

It is to be known by all scientists that authentic science cannot be separated from He who commissioned it, that is God in the flesh our Lord Jesus Christ. They who separate the object of matter from the Creator and Lord of Matter fall into serious error and will never discover the fullness of the truth. Simply observe the certain deterioration of the world due to the divorce of the sciences from God. Thus psychology in its true nature is also very close to God, because it concerns the psyche or the soul or anima, where the image of God is primarily.

The Fundamental Nature of the Psyche

The psyche or the soul constitutes everything that a man is. The soul does not inhabit the body, instead the body inhabits the soul. The soul refers to the totality but more accurately the fundamental reality of man. Thus there is a real distinction between the essence of man, which we call soul, and the body which is the means of the soul’s manifestation and action. Psychology concerns herself with that essence of man, the soul, over the body. Anything bodily is studied in relation to the soul. Since the formal object of psychology is the soul per se, it is distinct from theology which studies the soul in relation to her Creator, and distinct from philosophy which studies the soul as Being instead of the soul as soul. Psychology precisely studies Soul as Soul.

 

Against Materialist Psychology

I do not refute the psychosomatic unity of the body and the soul, what I do reject is the absolute materialist reduction of the soul to the body. As if the soul is the body and the body is the soul. There is unity between the body and the soul for sure, but neither is reducible to the other. The body is not just a projection of the soul nor is the soul just an emergent property of the body. Therefore any psychology which immediately assumes a materialist conception of reality has to be rejected as a false psychology.

In the following text I shall ground the basic refutations of materialism as a whole.

Against Materialism

I first distinguish according to Kant and all orthodox philosophers that there is a distinction between appearance and the thing-in-itself. The appearance is formless, it is flat and takes up no space at all. It is a mere conception, while the thing certainly takes space. In elaboration, the laws which govern matter are certainly immaterial. Ideas are immaterial. Feelings are immaterial. We can certainly take material representations of these things, but there is no reducibility to matter here. Can there be a material idea? No, only a material representation or manifestation of idea, but the idea itself is pure spirit or extension of spirit. This refutes materialism sufficiently.

A Critique on Restricted Science

Science ought to remain distinct but not separate from all modes of study. What is within the domain of the sense, science has authority over. Yet when it comes to interpretation of the immaterial form of that sense data, science must submit to philosophy. Even more so when it comes to interpretation according to the highest causes, science must submit to theology. The current science which denies philosophy and theology is a stupid science, it is irrational and does not see the fullness of truth. If only science would see the truths of philosophy and theology, then science would be so much more useful and enlightening to humanity.

The Humanistic Nature of Psychology

While there is indeed animal psychology, the general focus of psychology as commonly understood by people is the human soul, the substantial form of humanity. This is not to say that psychology is completely humanistic as some would define humanism. Rather when I say that psychology is humanist, I mean that it is focused on everything human, not that humanity is the standard of measurement nor is humanity the absolute of all absolutes. As such when psychology studies humanity, it studies everything pertaining to humanity, including their lowliness and their emptiness as compared to the universe beyond or even more God Himself.

The Dual Substance of Humanity

Man has two substances, the body and the soul, otherwise the material and the immaterial. How shall we demonstrate that this is true? It is obvious for each observer to prove to themselves that they have a body and a soul, yet how do we prove that other human beings have a soul just as we do? The answer is by language or by the Word. That we may speak with others and reason together and feel together is sufficient evidence, though not perfect, to demonstrate the existence of the experiencing soul in another person. The best way though is simply to show that Reality itself is Psychological.

Abstract Foundation of the Soul or Spirit

In this section I shall explore what founds the soul or spirit in reality. First, since we use two words, we ought to distinguish them. They refer to the same immaterial object, but a spirit typically means a bodiless immaterial being of intellect and will, while a soul typically means an immaterial being of intellect and will inhabiting and animating a body. I shall treat the matter of the spirit first, as they are the foundations of all reality, animating all of reality. The first Spirit is God, and the second group of Spirits are the angels, the servants of God.

The general property of God and the angels is that they all have intellect and will. For that matter we ought to discern the nature of the intellect and the will. The will is typically the easier property to explain, it is the capacity of determination. While the intellect is the capacity of knowledge. Yet what is knowledge? Knowledge is also determination, yet it is passive, at least in an “analogical” sense. For the will is to determine the other, while to know is to have yourself be determined by another.

The order of Spirit is wholly different in God than in creation so the description above is appropriate for those beings created. We shall now properly treat the psychic property of the human soul. The human soul is indeed a compound of intellect and will, the capacity to receive and give knowledge to others. There are two aspects to knowledge, the objective and the moral aspect of knowledge. The objective aspect of knowledge is based on the thing in itself, while the moral aspect of knowledge is based on the relations between the soul and the object. For all of morality is summed up in the notions of whole relations.