{"id":4244,"date":"2020-01-09T14:55:14","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T19:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/?p=4244"},"modified":"2020-01-09T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T19:55:14","slug":"a-courage-for-today-a-psychoanalytic-and-spiritual-contribution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/?p=4244","title":{"rendered":"A Courage for Today: A Psychoanalytic and Spiritual Contribution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image by Sasin Tipchai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

William\nS. Schmidt, Ph.D.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

December\n16, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard times pose particular challenges for persons and communities. Times of crisis can threaten to erode the cohesion of selfhood, even as they force communities and persons to confront heretofore unforeseen threats and challenges. Although such times can have the effect of disorienting the self and its communal base, it can also have the effect of crystallizing self and community into a new concentration of strength, resourcefulness and transcendence. The word often used to describe this latter outcome is \u201ccourage\u201d, a word we need in times of upheaval and uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            At first glance it would be easy to\nascribe the label \u201ccourage\u201d to any bold action of confronting a danger or even\ndeath, but this would miss the internal complexity of such an activity. If courage\nis a supreme virtue, its true nature and operations cannot simply be equated\nwith an instinct, however bold or fearless it seems to be. True courage is not\nautomatic in the sense of an unconscious or inevitable action that flies in the\nface of danger. It is rather, a highly self-reflective activity in which the\ntrue nature of a self or community reveals itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Psychoanalytic Exploration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            A formidable explorer of the nature\nof courage can be found in the person of Heinz Kohut, a Viennese Jew who escaped\nthe Nazi takeover of Austria and eventually settled in Chicago.  Kohut ultimately became the Director of the\nChicago Psychoanalytic Institute, and in 1964-1965 even became the head of the\nAmerican Psychoanalytic Association. As his biographer Charles Strozier notes,\nKohut became particularly interested in the topic of courage, perhaps in the\naftermath of his own battles with the psychoanalytic establishment, in which he\ntook on the ideological edifice of his day and profoundly transformed it. [2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Kohut\u2019 s particular interest in\ncourage was shaped by his taste of totalitarian oppression as a young man, and\nhis attempt to understand how some persons did not only survive that\njuggernaut, but courageously engaged and challenged it. [3]<\/a>   As he engaged the task of understanding this\nphenomenon called courage, Kohut selected the stories of three Austrian and\nGerman war resisters who each paid with their lives for their resistance.  The three were Franz Jagerstatter, an\nAustrian Catholic peasant, and Hans and Sophie Scholl, the Munich medical\nstudents who wrote and distributed underground newspapers calling their fellow\ncitizens toward non-violent resistance, until they were caught and\nexecuted.  Franz Jagerstatter was\nespecially selected by Kohut as exemplary of the conflicts, struggles, and\nresolutions that occur as courage is born. \nHis story has been given new and welcome visibility in the feature film\n\u201cA Hidden Life.\u201d<\/strong> (December\n13, 2019)[4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Kohut concluded that Jagerstatter\nwas not the only devout Catholic in his community, and certainly not the only\none who realized that his religious values were in conflict with the total\nloyalty demanded of the Nazis. However, most persons ignored or set aside their\nreservations about the regime and joined the majority. Their psychological and\nspiritual equipment was not adequate to allow them to set their core self\nagainst the overwhelming presence of Nazi ideology and power. The quality that\nKohut surmised was present in Jagerstatter and the Scholls\u2019, but absent in most\nof his contemporaries, was the capacity not to withdraw from an inner conflict\nof intense and extreme proportions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This internal conflict contains\nseveral interrelated tasks revealing three specific and discernable features:\n1) one must identify with one\u2019s core self (ideals), 2) one must resist the\ntendency to disown one\u2019s core self, and 3) one must resolve to shape one\u2019s\nattitudes and actions in accord with one\u2019s core self despite inner doubts and\nexternal threats and seductions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What Kohut\u2019s conclusion reveals is\nthat such courage is not simply easily arrived at, nor is it simply given. It\nis not like being on automatic pilot without inner struggle.  It involves an often agonizing self-scrutiny,\nand out of such soul-searching the full meaning and implications of one\u2019s core\ncommitments emerges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In examining the lives of these\nquiet heroes, Kohut concluded that they all manifested three features that gave\ntheir courage the quality of groundedness and non-psychosis, but also allowed\nthem to transcend the entrapment of the status quo.  These three features were not necessarily\nequally present in these different individuals but they all seemed to manifest\nthem in obvious measure so that it was clearly discernable by others.  These three features are: 1) a sense of\nhumor, 2) the ability to respond to others with empathy, and 3) a deep sense of\npeace.  This latter attribute was\nespecially noteworthy in spite of the intense inner struggle underway in them\nas they faced their choices and its agonizing consequences. Their personalities\nseemed filled with a profound sense of serenity, perhaps close to what we would\ncall wisdom.  These three elements,\nespecially the sense of peace or serenity, always seemed evident to observers,\neven to their torturers, persecutors and executioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Although Kohut does not pursue these\nfeatures directly, it behooves us to understand their place in the emergence of\ncourage. First, the presence of humor reveals the capacity to have perspective,\nand to recognize the absurdities and ironies of one\u2019s life and situation. Humor\nindicates that one doesn\u2019t take oneself too seriously even in the face of grand\nand noble pursuits. Humor is a mode of transcendence and it restores a sense of\nproportionality. It is an antidote to grandiosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Secondly, the presence of empathy\nnames the factor of heart as central to the emergence of courage. Indeed, the\nword courage comes from the French word \u201ccoeur\u201d, meaning heart.[5]<\/a>  This heart or empathic factor suggests that\none is connected to one\u2019s own humanity and the full humanity of one\u2019s neighbor,\nand, that one is prepared to act radically upon this knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Thirdly, the feature of peace and\nserenity emerges because the commitment to the truest center of the self,\nincluding one\u2019s core ideals, generates a profound balance, equilibrium and\nharmony within the person, and the whole personality becomes aligned with this\ncenter. There is sense of peace and even joy released in us when our ideals and\nour personality and our actions have become one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It is for these reasons that Kohut\nconcludes that courage has to do with not only staying true to one\u2019s core\nvalues, but to one\u2019s core self. This core self is akin to an amalgam of one\u2019s\ndeepest ideals, most authentic goals, purposes, and life themes; in short, an\nexpression of one\u2019s deepest sense of self. The courage emerging from this core\nself is defined by Kohut as \u201cthe ability to brave even death\u2026rather than to\nbetray the nucleus of one\u2019s psychological being, that is, one\u2019s ideals.\u201d [6]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Contemporary Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Kohut\u2019s hero models are certainly\nexemplars of courage, and inspire us to deepen our commitment to cultivating\nour core self, including our deepest values and ideals. But our call to courage\nis not a call to resist totalitarian regimes, nor are we likely to be faced\nwith the prospect of running back into burning buildings to rescue others, or face\nperpetrators of mass shootings in our churches, synagogues, mosques, or public\nspaces.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I would propose that courage regularly\nneeds re-framing given the new and multiple challenges which confront every\nage. In fact, courage may be understood as the capacity to confront the unique\nand perhaps unfamiliar challenges of new eras.  Our era faces the crisis of dystopia, of\nmassively unstable ground under our feet. \nWe are bombarded with the cultural realities of polarization,\nradicalization, and weaponization of our social fabric.  Xenophobia, nationalism, racism, public and\nprivate dishonesty, etc., all produce a cynicism and a new form of paralysis in\nthe form of exhaustion.  It seems every\nera needs to redefine and reaffirm courage in relation to the particular\nchallenges of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

             I would therefore define courage as follows: \u201cCourage is the freedom to fully engage\nthe reality of one\u2019s life situation while remaining radically committed to\novercoming the Spirit and life-denying aspects of one\u2019s experience.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There are two specific challenges\nwhich confront our contemporary environment and warrant the cultivating of\ncourage.  The first challenge facing\ncontemporary life is to cultivate that very center of self<\/strong> or center\nof values <\/strong>that would constitute one’s core. As many clinicians,\ncounselors and pastoral persons know, many persons in our world are threatened\nwith an eroding center. Kohut\u2019s protagonist, Franz Jagerstatter, had a center\nout of which he could make choices. What if there is an eroded center, or if it\nis fragmented?  Strengthening our own and\none another\u2019s cultivation of our center of purpose and meaning is the key to\ncourage-enhancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The second challenge facing our\ncurrent world is to find courage in the face of exhaustion and its twin, cynicism.\nTo succumb to cynicism is to grant ultimacy to our human potential for despair,\nand to lock oneself into a world of withdrawal and self-paralysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three dimensions of courage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            To resist these decentering and\nparalysis-generating forces of our lives requires cultivating three aspects of\ncourage. The first courage needed in times of trial and tribulation is the courage to face reality<\/strong> in all\nits starkness.  Reality is hard yet it\nleads us to truth.  Resisting one\u2019s own\ntemptation for denial takes courage and staying power.  None of us can hold in our heads and hearts\nthe multiplicity of all personal and social ills.  But what we can do is to find focus.  There where your heart is most burdened, you\nwill find your path and your necessary mobilization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If the ecological crisis is where\nyour inner fire burns most brightly, be there, and your focus will ground and\ninspire you.  If your fire burns there\nwhere refugees are violated, and children are separated from their parents, be\nthere, and you will find the animation it demands.  If your fire burns there where racism,\nsexism, classism abound, be there, and your focus will bring clarity and discernment\nin the face of the risk of a scattered and frenetic flailing about.   One needs courage to face the reality of one\u2019s\nsituation, including one\u2019s corresponding grief, sorrow, anger, and the despair\nwe may carry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            As we engage reality in the\ncontemporary arena we will face two major questions.  These are the (1) \u201cWhy now\u201d? and (2) \u201cNow\nwhat\u201d? questions.  To face the \u201cwhy now\u201d\nquestion takes courage because it forces us to look at the contextual reality\nof our situation beyond the simplistic good vs. evil, black vs. white\nideologies of the day.  If we only\nrespond to personal communal alienation by demonizing our adversaries, how is\nour world to find redemption?  To ask the\n\u201cwhy now\u201d questions means we must be prepared to face the raw alienation\nvisible in our reality.  We must find the\ncourage to examine our place in the world and the courage to hear what the\nworld is saying to us.  It takes great\ncourage to listen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\ncourage to face reality also includes being able to ask the \u201cnow what\u201d\nquestion.  In confusing and polarized\ntimes one is tempted to demonize \u201cthe other\u201d even as we ourselves may feel\nvictimized or \u201cothered.\u201d Ideological, political, religious, or a moral\nself-righteousness reinforces reactivity and deepens alienation.  We may be tempted by the false belief that\nvanquishing the reactive forces of our world through force and power can\nresolve our dilemmas or restore our world to wholeness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We\nmust find the courage to affirm justice and assure its centrality in what we seek.  In seeking justice for the causes we hold\ndear, we must become advocates of justice for all peoples of our world.  It is not sufficient to serve justice when it\nserves us, but we must have the courage to pursue justice when it is not\nnecessarily popular to do so, and this requires an awareness of the dynamics of\nprivilege or power, a necessary humility that recognizes that we all contain\nour own blind spots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The second dimension of courage\nrequired of us is the courage to face darkness in ourselves and in our world.  Darkness is a force, an energy field that\nthreatens to draw everything into itself, a black hole of the Spirit.  The darkness that confronted Kohut\u2019s\nprotagonists was the darkness of totalitarianism.  His examples of courage questioned the high\npriests of power of their day and Kohut\u2019s hero\u2019s challenged these power systems\nthrough non-violent resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Our world confronts a somewhat\ndifferent darkness.  Our darkness is not\nso much a darkness of total power, but a darkness of violence, annihilation,\nand radical polarization.  It is the\ndarkness of an alienation that runs away with itself and consumes its\nworld.  In Kohut\u2019s day, the enemy was\nobvious, visible, and strutting.  Our\nso-called enemy is invisible and non-substantial; it is not fixed in time and\nplace. When indiscriminate violence and oozing hatred threatens our lives, it\nunleashes inner dangers every bit as threatening as outer dangers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            These dangers include the darkness\nof fear and demonization, which can settle in our soul as a spiritual cancer,\nthe form of paranoia, where ultimately the world itself becomes our enemy.  Such fear itself becomes an enemy of\nSpirit.  The effect of this darkness of\nfear is that we project it outward onto others who have no connection to the\nsource of our fear.  We then run the risk\nof succumbing to scapegoating persons or communities, or of hiding from the\nworld in fear.  These dual dangers of\nindiscriminant blame and withdrawal and isolation, are two of the dangers of\nthe darkness we face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But perhaps the deepest darkness one\nfaces in an alienation-driven environment is the inner darkness of\ndespair.  Despair is the product of the\nloss of perspective, the product of allowing darkness to define our world.\nCourage is a commitment toward transcending the darkness one encounters in\none’s world.  Persons of faith have\nalways known that darkness never has the final word.  Darkness can only snuff out the light if one\nsuccumbs to it.  A single candle can\nbanish darkness into the furthest corners of any room.  Courage is the name we give to any effort to\nkindle one’s Spirit as light-bearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The third dimension of courage\nneeded today is the courage to permit our Spirit-Center to lead us where we\nwould rather not go.  Courage, as our\ncommitment to overcoming the life and spirit-denying aspects of our reality,\ncomes with a direction, a path.  Courage\ngoes somewhere, takes persons somewhere, toward a habitation of Spirit that is\nnot yet their own.  To be of good courage\nis to be on the move.  But this movement\nis not necessarily one in step with prevailing cultural or political attitudes,\nbeliefs, or goals.  The norms of the day\nmay not coincide with one’s truest inner center, and this center calls us first\nand foremost into integrity with ourselves. \nWhen we embrace this deep inner \u201cfelt rightness\u201d it compels us to act\naccordingly.  Sometimes that path means\njoining in solidarity with others who are on a parallel journey of seeking\ntruth, justice, or goodness.  Sometimes\nthis path is a solitary path, where we are called by our inner Spirit to be a\nvoice crying in the wilderness of reactionary forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It takes courage to face darkness,\nboth the darkness that others may impose upon us, as well as the darkness that\nresides in our own hearts. The courage our world needs is the courage to be\nfaithful to a larger vision of wholeness than the merchants of hatred and violence\nwould have us believe. There is a larger unity that seeks to be born in our\nworld, and it takes courage to be champions of that unity.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

1 Extensive\nrevision with permission. William Schmidt, first published: \u201cCourage<\/strong>\u201d www.Oates.org\/journal<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vol. 4, No.8, 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a>\nCharles Strozier, The Making of a\nPsychoanalyst<\/strong>.  New York:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a>\nHeinz Kohut, Self Psychology and the\nHumanities<\/strong>.  New York: W.W. Norton\n&Company, 1985, page 5 to 50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a>\nErna Putz, Franz Jagerstatter: Letters\nand Papers from Prison<\/strong>.  Orbis\nBooks.  2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a>\nPeter Gilmour.  Growing in Courage<\/strong>. \nWinona Minnesota: Saint Mary\u2019s Press. \n1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a>\nKohut, op.cit., p.6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William S. Schmidt, Ph.D.[1] December 16, 2019 Hard times pose particular challenges for persons and communities. Times of crisis can threaten to erode the cohesion of selfhood, even as they force communities and persons to confront heretofore unforeseen threats and challenges. Although such times can have the effect of disorienting the self and its communal read more <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}