THE PSYCHOTHERAPY ANALOGY AND CHARISMATIC HEALING

Studies of religious healing have consistently attempted to understand it through a global analogy to psychotherapy, without systematically examining the basis for this analogy. Catholic Charismatic healing provides an opportunity to examine the psychotherapy analogy among practitioners who integrate professional training with religious concepts of person, affliction, and healing. The interplay of religious and therapeutic dimensions of healing is evident in sequences of vivid imagery, often including the figure of Jesus as an internal representation of healing power. Healers who integrate the two systems face practical problems related to differences in their underlying assumptions, as well as to characteristics of the population they serve.