Nancy Missler & PsychoHeresy
Part Two: Missler Responds
In response to our article exposing her Freudian
roots, Nancy Missler has placed a report titled
"Hidden Chambers" on the Koinonia House Web
site. She also sent us a packet of materials that
contained some of the same ideas. Both on the Web site
and in the packet of materials, Missler continues to
demonstrate her confusion about the unconscious and her
misunderstanding of our criticism of her model of man.
Missler says, "Because the writings of Sigmund Freud
have had much influence on our daily vocabulary and
familiar idioms, many erroneously assume that the
subconscious itself is a Freudian concept." (In a
note at the end of her report, Missler says, "We use
the words 'subconscious,' 'unconscious,' and 'memory' as
synonyms." Her use of "hidden chambers"
also refers to that same set of synonyms.)
In an attempt to prove her case that the unconscious
(or "subconscious") is not solely a Freudian
concept, Missler quotes from a few pre-Freudian persons
who used the term. The fact that people before Freud
referred to the unconscious has nothing to do with our
criticisms of Missler's version of the unconscious. We
have reported on the history of the use of the term unconscious
ourselves. Our objection with Missler's teachings is NOT
about the generic use of the terms subconscious and
unconscious, or about the use made of the
unconscious by those prior to Freud, but rather about
Missler's use of the Freudian unconscious. Missler's
unconscious little resembles that of the pre-Freudian
individuals she lists, but it clearly reflects Freud's.
Freudian Unconscious Continues to be Used
A recent issue of Scientific American tells
"Why Freud Isn't Dead" (Dec., 1996). The
article demonstrates that specific Freudian ideas, such
as the Oedipus Complex, have "fallen out of favor
even among psychoanalysts" (p. 74). Morris Eagle,
president of the psychoanalysis division of the American
Psychological Association and a professor at Adelphi
University says, "There are very few analysts who
follow all of Freud's formulations" (p. 74). The
Scientific American article goes on to state:
Nevertheless, psychotherapists of all stripes
still tend to share two of Freud's core beliefs: One
is that our behavior, thoughts and emotions stem from
unconscious fears and desires, often rooted in
childhood experiences. The other is that with the
help of a trained therapist, we can understand the
source of our troubles and thereby obtain some relief
(p. 74).
Like many Freudian psychotherapists, Missler uses the
Freudian unconscious without using the sexual ideas of
Freud. Also, like those Freudian psychotherapists and
based upon the Freudian unconscious, Missler presents her
model of man so that with the help of her books and tapes
"we can understand the source of our troubles and
thereby obtain some relief." Although Missler claims
a biblical model and biblical solutions, she nonetheless
provides a Freudian-like model and transmogrifies
Scripture to make it fit.
Even though Missler has probably never studied Freud
and probably has no idea of the Freudian model of the
unconscious, she nonetheless has gleaned her version of
the unconscious from those integrationists who have
worked diligently to make psychological counseling
theories sound biblical. She mistakenly thinks she is
using a biblical rather than a Freudian model of the
unconscious.
Comparing Missler's Model of the Unconscious
with Freud's
For Missler, like Freud, the unconscious is a
reservoir of dynamic mental activity instead of just a
dormant repository of memories below the conscious level.
For Missler, like Freud, repression is the rejection
of something in order to keep it outside consciousness.
For Missler, like Freud, what is in the unconscious
will come out in one way or another. Freud borrowed
heavily from Hermann von Helmholtz's principle of the
conservation of energy. Freud believed that there was a
finite amount of energy that powers the unconscious
conflicts. If the energy is blocked, it will somehow find
a release. On the basis of research, Dr. Carol Tavris
says, "Today the hydraulic model of energy [used by
Freud and others] has been scientifically
discredited" (Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion,
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982, p. 37).
For Missler, like Freud, what is in the unconscious
motivates behavior.
In her talk for Suitable Helpers, Missler says:
The truth is, of course, when we bury-listen to me
carefully because this is so important-when we bury
our real feelings, we don't get rid of them. We
program them in, and they motivate all
of our actions.
Whether you know they're there or not, that thing
that you buried is going to begin to motivate all
your actions.
But so often those buried hurts and resentments,
that were justified, would cause me
to act just the opposite. . . . I wanted to act one
way, but this buried stuff was causing me
to act another way.
Missler uses Romans 7:15 ("For that which I do I
allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I
hate, that do I.") in her attempt to support these
notions. However, Paul is talking about behavior
resulting from sin that dwells in him, not about a
reservoir of buried feelings that "motivate all of
our actions." These feelings that she says cause
behavior include "buried hurts and resentments, that
were justified." While she says people must get rid
of these buried (repressed) feelings, she softens the
sharp edge of sin by referring to resentments as being
"justified." But, resentment is sin and the
Bible does not justify sin.
Also in this same talk, her teaching about people
burying their hurts and those buried things motivating
all one's actions is a common representation of Freud's
theory of repression and his theory of a powerful
unconscious that motivates a person's actions outside his
awareness. Perhaps people feel better about themselves
when they believe in an unconscious, filled with hurts,
fears, and insecurities, that causes their behavior,
instead of sin resident within them. Sin must be dealt
with, but not through using a Freudian type of
unconscious.
Paul cries out, "O wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And,
he answers, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of
God; but with the flesh the law of sin." Throughout
this section of Scripture Paul describes the conflict
between the flesh and the spirit, not the existence of an
unconscious that causes behavior.
As we pointed out in Part One of this series, Missler
clearly mixes Freudian psychology with the Bible in her
book Be Ye Transformed. She says:
Things in our life that are "not of
faith" and that we don't immediately "deal
with" and give over to God, automatically get
pushed down into our hidden chambers (our
subconscious) and eventually become the hidden
motivation for all our actions. All our
fears, insecurities, memories, etc., that we bury
thinking "no one will see and no one will
know" ultimately will end up controlling
and directing our lives and forcing us to live
a lie.
As God begins to teach us how to "take every
thought captive," we'll see that we can get free
of, not only our conscious negative thoughts
and emotions, but also all the unconscious doubts,
fears and insecurities that we have buried
deep within our souls and that have motivated us for
most of our lives (p. 12, italics in
original; bold added).
In her attempt to support her model of the
unconscious, Missler says, "The insight that our
memory works below the level of consciousness pre-dates
Freud by over 1500 years." But, none of those to
whom Missler refers used a Freudian type of model. That
kind of unconscious was Freud's invention. Those who
spoke of the unconscious before Freud did not use the
unconscious in the same manner Freud did, and they did
not use it in the way Missler does! The Freudians of
today would most clearly see the Missler-Freud
connection! Freudian therapists familiar with her model
of the unconscious would certainly see Missler as a
fellow Freudian traveler.
Missler's Use of the Unconscious Not Supported
by Scripture
Missler does not see this insidious connection and
continues to contend that her model is biblical. She
says, "Many Christians, driven by their concern
about the preoccupation of psychologists with the
subconscious, mistakenly ignore its Biblical basis."
She further says: "The Bible alludes many times to
parts of our memory and experience that are not
accessible to our conscious mind" ("Hidden
Chambers"). Her first so-called evidence is Psalms
19:12-13:
Who understandeth his errors? Purify me
from secret faults. Keep back thy servant
also from presumptuous sins; let them not
have dominion over me: then shall I be perfect, and I
shall be innocent from great transgression.
Missler assumes that these "secret faults"
are hidden from the person himself. Moreover, this verse
says nothing about anything that is hidden in a powerful,
motivating subconscious, "not accessible to our
conscious mind." While some "secret [sinful,
since David is asking to be purified from them]
faults" could be temporarily outside current
conscious awareness, there is nothing here that would
support the idea that a person's secret sins "are
not accessible to the conscious mind" or that there
is a powerful unconscious part of the mind that has
dominion over a person. Missler goes beyond the generic
use of the word unconscious. She empowers it in
the same way Freud did, making it a forceful, motivating
entity that dominates a person's actions from a realm not
only outside his awareness, but "not accessible to
our conscious mind."
In an attempt to support her theory of this kind of
unconscious, Missler uses ellipses and quotes Psalms
19:12-13 this way:
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me
from secret (covered up, closed up, hidden) faults. .
. let them not have dominion over me. . . .
By removing the antecedent ("presumptuous
sins") from the pronoun ("them") through
an ellipsis ("...."), Missler makes it seem as
though David is asking God to prevent his "secret
faults" from having "dominion over" him.
However, the plain and proper way to read the text is to
see that David is asking the Lord to prevent his presumptuous
sins from having dominion over him. The Hebrew
adjective translated "presumptuous" is
generally translated "proud" or
"arrogant." Indeed, pride does motivate a good
deal of sin and can have dominion over a person. But,
Missler changes the text to make it sound as though the
"secret faults" are what "have
dominion" over a person.
The "secret faults" refer to sin, rather
than the results of what has been done to a person
(hurts, etc.). Their existence does not justify Missler's
use of hidden chambers or the subconscious.
The kind of subconscious (hidden chambers) she is trying
to establish is one filled with things that have been
done to a person and the resulting hurts, fears, etc.
that she claims "are not accessible to our conscious
mind" and that have dominion. Psalms 19:12-13 fails
to provide biblical evidence for the kind of subconscious
proposed by Missler.
Missler constricts the Bible and all mankind to her
model of man. There are both theological and
psychological problems with her model, but our primary
concern is her insistence upon a Freudian type of
unconscious that is more than the general use of the
word. She uses it in a psychoanalytic manner, as if it is
a powerful entity that drives behavior outside awareness
and that is inaccessible to the conscious mind until
someone reveals what is inside. To construct a place for
all the hurts, resulting from what has been done to a
person and that have been "repressed" because
they are just too painful to deal with, is to follow the
teachings of Freud, not the Bible.
Missler also cites Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O
God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and
see if there be any wicked way in me," and Psalm
51:6, "Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward
parts; and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me know
wisdom." While these verses do support the fact that
mankind has an inner man, they do not support Missler's
Freudian-type of unconscious. These verses reveal the
complexity of humankind and the fact that God knows the
inner workings of each individual person beyond human
understanding. We agree that the Bible teaches that there
is an inner man, hidden from the world, but these verses
do NOT support the kind of unconscious that Missler
teaches.
Missler also refers to the "strong holds" in
2 Corinthians 10:4 in her attempt to make the Bible
support her type of unconscious. Once again the verse
fails to support her Freudian-like descriptions of the
unconscious, even if such "strong holds" may
include what is presently outside conscious awareness.
The same can be said for all the other verses that she
uses in her attempts to "prove" that her
particular type of unconscious came from Scripture.
Missler repeats her arguments having to do with the
Hebrew word, written as heder or cheder,
which may be translated "hidden chambers."
(Missler uses cheder in "Hidden
Chambers" on the Koinonia House Web site and heder
in her book Be Ye Transformed.) We analyzed
her arguments in Part One of "Nancy Missler &
PsychoHeresy" and showed that her arguments
constitute eisegesis rather than exegesis. (See PsychoHeresy
Awareness Letter, Vol. 5, No. 1).
Psychological Speculation
The following is a definition of the word unconscious
as it is used in reference to psychoanalysis:
the unconscious Psychoanalysis the sum of
all thoughts, memories, impulses, desires, feelings,
etc. of which the individual is not conscious but
which influence his emotions and behavior; that part
of one's psyche which comprises repressed material of
this nature (Webster's New World Dictionary of
the American Language, Second College Edition,
1984, p. 1545).
This psychoanalytic (i.e., Freudian) definition
describes what Missler teaches regarding the hidden
chambers, the unconscious, and the subconscious. Although
Missler does not teach the totality of Freud's theory,
her teachings about the hidden chambers, unconscious, and
subconscious are Freudian.
Missler may be committed to her understanding of the
nature of man, because she connects it with the
transformation of her own marriage. However, in
discussing the so-called "discoveries" she made
in searching out certain words in the Bible, her husband,
Chuck Missler, gives a startling revelation. He says:
And these discoveries have changed our lives. In
fact, it's really the other way around. God had
changed our lives and she was trying to find out how
and what was behind it. And, that's when she
undertook these studies ("Architecture of
Man" audio tape).
Thus, it was after their lives had changed that Nancy
set out to discover why.
The Lord works in mysterious ways, often beyond human
understanding. When people try to figure out how God
works in the inner man and transforms a person, they can
easily fall into psychological speculation. The Lord
truly transforms people, but he does it through His Word,
His Spirit, and His Body. When it comes to understanding
human nature and how people change, why not trust in the
Lord and His Word alone and lean not unto psychological
speculation?
(To be continued)
Nancy Missler &
PsychoHeresy - Part Three
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