When a man has an exact knowledge about the nature of thoughts, he recognizes those which are about to enter and defile him, troubling the intellect with distractions and making it lazy. Those who recognize these evil thoughts for what they are remain undisturbed and continue in prayer to God.
St Isaiah the Solitary, “On Guarding the Intellect: Twenty-Seven Texts,” Philokolia, pp. 20-21
Many Christians doubt the value of psychology and psychotherapy seeing them (not unreasonably) as antithetical to the Gospel. And yet, as St Isaiah points out, there is a necessary psychological element to the spiritual life. We must understand our thoughts. Or as the saint says, we must have “an exact knowledge” of “the nature” of our thoughts.
Here secular forms of psychology and psychotherapy can be of some value in our spiritual life. To be sure, they can be misused. Even when used properly according to the standards of the profession, the often implicit anthropological and moral assumptions of the discipline and/or therapist can lead the soul astray.
But as St Isaiah points out (and as we've seen before), this is hardly unique to secular thought. We are all prone to thoughts that defile and trouble us.
Even when we set out on a good path to do good things, we can still lose our way. St Antony the Great warns us that the immature monk, and even those no longer novices in the spiritual life, can undertake the ascetical life unwisely. Too much fasting can be as harmful as too little for example.
Part of where I think we go wrong is forgetting that “an exact knowledge” of our thoughts is an open-ended project. The more I understand my own thinking, the more I realize how little I have understood them.
The reason is straightforward enough. Knowing my thoughts changes my thinking. My self-examination is like going for a walk. Each step changes my relationship to the horizon and brings me to a new starting point.
Seen this way, the fact that I ever come to understand myself (or reach my destination!) is nothing short of wondrous. I am a mystery to myself and understanding my thoughts is first and foremost to realize that "the secrets" of my heart are known fully only to God (see Psalm 44:21) and only partially (if at all) to myself.
To know myself--to take that first step to knowing God--is paradoxically to turn to God. Or, as we read in another place, the LORD searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought” (1 Chronicles 28:9).
As for the exact knowledge of my thoughts, it seems this will always be beyond my grasp.
Moving from thought to action, the situation becomes still more complicated and mysterious.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it (Romans 7:15-22).
Maybe it surprises you (as it does me) but St Paul's words here help me see the value of the more deterministic approaches to human psychology. While ideologically they deny human freedom and agency, they also contain a fundamentally sound anthropological intuition: I am not free, or at least, I am not as free as I imagine myself to be. My thoughts and actions are often determined by external forces, ambiguous psychological processes, and my genetic inheritance. And let's not forget sin.
While we ought not to deny human freedom, nothing prevents us from acknowledging that our freedom is situated. I am free but only within limits. To the degree they make these limits known the sciences built on a deterministic anthropology are a blessing to my life in Christ.
“Bless my enemies, O Lord.” writes St Nikolai of Ochrid. “Even I bless them and do not curse them.” Why? Because
Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.
Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.
Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.
Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.
Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.
Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life,they have demolished it and driven me out.
Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of Thy garment.
Secular psychology, psychotherapy, and the other deterministic sciences are enemies I must bless. Their harsh indifference to the lofty but fanciful ideas about my own spiritual life can force me to confess “my sins before the world” in those moments when I rather not do so. Their harsh indifference to my imagined freedom brings to my attention those thoughts I would rather ignore "scold[ing] me, whenever I have flattered myself” and spit “upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.”