Speculation is rife in the media about why Pope Francis visited a psychoanalyst nearly 40 years ago.
He’s not saying – but in a new book based on 12 in-depth interviews with the French sociologist Dominique Wolton, he says the sessions helped him.
“In those six months [I visited the psychoanalyst], she really helped me,” he told Wolton. “She was a wonderful person.”
Francis has commented about psychiatry before. As an example, when he was asked why he lived in a modest guesthouse rather than the Apostolic Palace, he said it was for psychiatric reasons.
“I can’t live alone, do you understand?” he explained.
The revelation that he sought psychiatric help is a first for the Vatican, Robert Mickens says.
Mickens is the editor of the English-language edition of La Croix, a Catholic newspaper.
“Bergoglio [Francis] is a person with his feet on the ground, but he realises that you can’t pray away all your problems.
“That said, he would be the first to say that analysis is no substitute for spirituality.”
Francis told Wolton about the role and influence of the “courageous” women in his life. They included his mother, his two grandmothers and Esther Ballestrino de Careaga.
De Careaga was the communist founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo movement in Buenos Aires. She was killed during the Argentinian military dictatorship.
As a Jesuit, Francis is part of a tradition is known to value psychoanalysis. Many of his confreres regard self-awareness and introspection as being complementary to spirituality.
Source
- The Guardian
- The Telegraph
- Stuff
- RNS
- Image: Daily Wire
