To the
members of the American Psychiatric Association
GENUINE TREATMENT
CAN NEVER CONFLICT
WITH PATIENT'S MORAL OBLIGATION TO
GROW IN VIRTUE
On Monday, 4 January,
the Holy Father received a group of members of the American Psychiatric Association. During his brief address in English the Pope
spoke of the importance of the psychiatrists' work, especially in helping
individuals and calling society's attention to their needs.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It
gives me great pleasure to welcome to the Vatican the Presidents and members of
the American Psychiatric Association and the World Psychiatric Association,
together with officers and members of other psychiatric and psychoanalytic
associations of the United States and other countries. This meeting affords me a welcome opportunity
of express the Church's esteem for the many physicians and health care
professionals involved in the important and delicate area of psychiatric
medicine. Your patient efforts to
understand the conditions of general mental health and to provide care to those
suffering from psychic disorders have an immense potential for good for
individuals and for the life of society.
Associations like your own serve a valuable purpose in promoting high
standards of scientific knowledge as well as a deep awareness of the
professional and ethical requirements demanded by the practice of psychiatry.
By
its very nature, your work often brings you to the threshold of the human
mystery. It involves a
sensitivity to the often tangled workings of the human mind and heart,
and an openness to the ultimate concerns which give meaning to people's
lives. These are areas of utmost
importance to the Church, and they call to mind the urgent need for a
constructive dialogue between science and religion for the sake of shedding
greater light on the mystery of man in its fullness. The Church's own history
of commitment to caring for the sick, especially the poor and the emarginated,
is rooted in the conviction that the human person is a unity of body and
spirit, possessing an inviolable dignity as one made in the image of God and
called to a transcendent destiny. For
this reason, the Church is convinced that no adequate assessment of the nature
of the human person or the requirements for human fulfilment and psycho-social
well-being can be made without respect for man's spiritual dimension and
capacity for self-transcendence. Only by
transcending themselves and living a life of self-giving and openness to truth
and love can individuals reach fulfilment and contribute to building an
authentic human community.
Your
Association is rightly concerned to promote human dignity and the inviolability
of individuals and of their freedom. The
foundations of human dignity are to be found in the truth about man, and in his
human freedom to form his instincts and passions according to the objective
requirements of the moral order. As the
Scriptures suggest, there is an unbreakable link between authentic freedom and
truth (cf. Jn 10 47), indeed, “freedom attains its full development only by
accepting the truth” (Centesimus annus,
n. 46). It follows that no genuine therapy or treatment for psychic
disturbances can even conflict with the moral obligation of the patient to
pursue the truth and to grow in
virtue. This moral component of the
therapeutic task makes great demands upon psychiatrists, who must be committed
to attaining a more adequate grasp of the truth of their own lives and to
showing profound respect for the dignity of their patients.
Psychiatrists must also feel themselves responsible for the social
ramifications of their practice. This is
especially true today, when there is ever more clearly a relationship between
the appearance and aggravation of certain illnesses and mental disturbances and
the crisis of values which society is experiencing. You and your associates will make an
important contribution to the future of society by seeking to point out, in the
light of a dispassionate commitment to truth, the limits of certain models of
social life which can lead to the manipulation of persons and to an unhealthy
conditioning of human freedom. In your
work to overcome the stigma which has often been associated with mental
illness, to end the abuse of psychiatry for ideological reasons, and to
strengthen the family as the basic unit of society, as well as in your efforts
to draw society's attention to the special needs of the poor, the homeless and
the abused - you can be certain of the Church's appreciation and ready
cooperation.
The
task of healing others and ensuring their psycho-social equilibrium is indeed
important and delicate. Together with
scientific knowledge there is need of great wisdom in those who devote
themselves to this work. Assuring you
once more of the Church's esteem, I cordially invoke upon you and the members
of your Associations the abundant blessings of Almighty God.