Science in Christian Perspective

PSYCHOLOGY
Philip Marquart, M.D.

From: JASA 6 (March 1954): 34-35.

Love Is Not Enough*

Love, to a Freudian, is a more inclusive term than we recognize and it is obvious that it is viewed as sex-evolved. All psychological groups who work with children, have been emphasizing love, affection, consideration, self-expression, understanding, freedom from restraint. Behind all this movement is the belief that man is inherently good, and therefore, all a child needs is freedom to do whatever comes into his mind. We as Christians cannot follow such un-psychologic doctrine, but we see its ramifications in many related fields. Nondirective counseling is based upon this teaching, likewise Play Therapy for children, and the utter expressionism that is often found in the modern applications of Progressive Education. State laws and school principals alike forbid any form of corporal punishment, and even such punishment as disapproval is being frowned upon as inhibitive to the child's natural productivity. Likewise the two dominant schools in the field of therapy stand for this expressionism, which is well-oiled in "love", these two schools being 1) the Freudian 2) Conditioned Reflex therapy (Behaviorism).

But here is Dr. Bettelheim, a voice in this wilderness of self-expressive nonsense, who finds by the dint of his clinical experience, that "Love is not Enough". Of course it isn't enough. Why not a little "shock treatment". Shock helps patients. We do not know exactly Why, but help it does. Isn't that what we all needShock Therapy. That is why God sends affliction into our lives, and that is why we, as Christians, still believe in spankings. Read the Book of Proverbs once again and note how many times it enjoins corporal punishment. Love is not enough!

Yes. there is a place left for Love. Infants only a few months old, will frequently die unless they be given some cuddling at the breast of a mother figure. A child in late babyhood, who is denied the love of a mother, will never know what it has missed. But such love forms the starting point for the effective spankings of reformative discipline. Even small children, when denied a mother's love, will tend to turn to sex for satisfaction and masturbation is a result. Adolescents and also adults need their dosage of Love. Insane patients in State Hospitals have been known to be loved back to normal by some one person who is concerned about them. But Love Is Not Enough! It forms only a foundation for a well-balanced program of full-orbed discipline.