Antropología Cristiana

y Ciencias de la Salud Mental

 Montserrat Lafuente Gil
Mar Álvarez Segura
Martín F. Echavarría
(Editores)

Antropología Cristiana
y Ciencias de la Salud Mental
Autores
Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga William L. Hathaway
Mar Álvarez Segura Ruth María de Jesús Gómez
Paul C. Vitz Marisa Beatriz Tsuchida Fernández
Juan José Pérez-Soba Diez del Corral Monika Grygiel
Juana Sánchez-Gey Venegas María José Chávez
Martín F. Echavarría Julia Benlloch Ponce
Nicolene L. Joubert (PhD) Mireia Andrés
Werner May Agata Kasprzak
Daniëlle Phillips-Koning Clara Molinero Caparrós
Anna Ostaszewska Óscar García Mulet
Inés Espallargas Vargas Marisa Vendrell Sahuquillo
María Calatrava Narciso Verdejo Callado
Alfonso Osorio Isabel Lacruz Silvestre
Cristina López del Burgo Federico Mulet Valle
Martiño Rodríguez González Paloma Alonso Stuyck
Carlos Beltramo José M. Alejos
Jokin de Irala Saray Bonete
Sara García de Fernando García María Lacalle
Inmaculada García Font Luis María García Domínguez, S.J.
María D. Barroso López Amedeo Cencini
Lizeth Alonso Matías Montserrat Lafuente Gil
Ximena Llerena Espezúa Oriol Correa Nuño
Gabriela P. García Zavala Gloria Morelló Torrellas
Denisse F. Herrera Olarte Sara Prats García
Krzysztof A. Wojcieszek Sheila Gallego Martín
Joaquín García-Alandete Cecilia Akemi Ponce Sakuray
Joan D. A. Juanola Miriam Buxó Hernando
Pablo Patricio Lego Ana Revuelto Calleja
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 ÍNDICE

PRÓLOGO......................................................................................................... 13
Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga

PRÒLEG ........................................................................................................... 17
Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga

PREFACE .......................................................................................................... 21
Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga

INTRODUCCIÓN ............................................................................................. 25
Mar Álvarez Segura

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 29
Mar Álvarez Segura

ANTROPOLOGÍA CRISTIANA Y CIENCIAS DE LA SALUD MENTAL

A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL,

AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PREMISES OF A CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN
META-MODEL OF THE PERSON ...................................................................35
Paul C. Vitz

UN RESUMEN DE LAS PREMISAS TEOLÓGICAS, FILOSÓFICAS Y

PSICOLÓGICAS DE UN METAMODELO CRISTIANO CATÓLICO DE
LA PERSONA ................................................................................................... 45
Paul C. Vitz

¿QUÉ APORTA LA ANTROPOLOGÍA CRISTIANA A LAS CIENCIAS DE

LA SALUD MENTAL?....................................................................................... 55
Juan José Pérez-Soba Diez del Corral

UNA APORTACIÓN A LAS CIENCIAS DE LA SALUD MENTAL: LA

SICOÉTICA DE FERNANDO RIELO ..............................................................65
Juana Sánchez-Gey Venegas
8 Índice

ACEDIA Y PERSONALIDAD ...........................................................................73

Martín F. Echavarría

ACEDIA AND PERSONALITY .........................................................................87

Martín F. Echavarría

ESPIRITUALIDAD, VIRTUD Y PSICOTERAPIA

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL TRANSFOR-

MATION .......................................................................................................... 103
Nicolene L. Joubert (PhD)

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY - A CHALLENGE TO ME! ...............................121

Werner May

BROKERS AND HEALERS: THE ROLE OF AFRICAN/BLACK CHUR-

CHES IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN THE WEST ....................................133
Daniëlle Phillips-Koning

SPECIFIC CHRISTIAN ASPECTS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY ..........................149

Anna Ostaszewska

ANTROPOLOGÍA Y SOFROLOGÍA ...............................................................161

Inés Espallargas Vargas

ACTIVIDAD SEXUAL Y SALUD MENTAL DE LOS ADOLESCENTES:

EL PAPEL DE LA RELIGIOSIDAD ...............................................................177
María Calatrava, Alfonso Osorio, Cristina López-del Burgo,
Martiño Rodríguez-González, Carlos Beltramo, Jokin de Irala

LA VIRTUD DE LA STUDIOSITAS COMO FACTOR DE PREVENCIÓN

DE LA ANSIEDAD ANTE EXÁMENES .........................................................191
Sara García de Fernando García e Inmaculada García Font

FUNCIÓN DEL AGRADECIMIENTO EN EL TRATAMIENTO DE LAS

ADICCIONES. FUNDAMENTOS DE LA INTERVENCIÓN DESDE LA
ANTROPOLOGÍA CRISTIANA.......................................................................205
María D. Barroso-López y Lizeth Alonso-Matías

CRITERIOS DE SALUD PSICOLÓGICA SEGÚN ALBERT ELLIS Y

LAS ENSEÑANZAS DE LA TRADICIÓN CRISTIANA SOBRE LAS
VIRTUDES HUMANAS .................................................................................. 221
Ximena Llerena Espezúa
 Índice 9

PERSPECTIVA CRÍTICA DE LA RESILIENCIA: UN ANÁLISIS A

PARTIR DE LA VIRTUD DE LA FORTALEZA ..............................................237
Gabriela P. García-Zavala y Denisse F. Herrera-Olarte

IDEALISTIC OR REALISTIC SYSTEMS OF PERSONAL VALUES? ..........249

Krzysztof A. Wojcieszek

FILOSOFÍA DE LA PSICOLOGÍA

NATURALEZA CAÍDA, EGOCENTRISMO Y METANOIA: PATOLOGÍA

Y PSICOTERAPIA DEL CARÁCTER NEURÓTICO SEGÚN RUDOLF
ALLERS .......................................................................................................... 257
Joaquín García-Alandete

PSICOLOGÍA Y ESPIRITUALIDAD: ¿ACEPTAR O SUPERAR LA

CONDICIÓN HUMANA?................................................................................ 269
Joan D. A. Juanola

VIRTUDES INFUSAS Y NORMALIDAD PSÍQUICA SEGÚN SANTO

TOMÁS DE AQUINO ...................................................................................... 283
Pablo Patricio Lego

ENBODIED DUALISM & CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY .........................293

William L. Hathaway

LA MISIÓN DEL PSICÓLOGO CATÓLICO SEGÚN MAGDA ARNOLD .....305

Ruth María de Jesús Gómez

IDOBATAKAIGI: LA DIMENSIÓN RELACIONAL DE LA PERSONA DE

LA ÉPOCA EDO EN JAPÓN...........................................................................317
Marisa Beatriz Tsuchida Fernández

IDOBATAKAIGI: THE RELATIONAL DIMENSION OF THE PERSON

OF THE EDO ERA IN JAPAN ........................................................................327
Marisa Beatriz Tsuchida Fernández

AFECTIVIDAD Y FAMILIA

MADUREZ AFECTIVA, RECONOCIMIENTO DEL VÍNCULO Y ALTE-

RIDAD ............................................................................................................. 339
Monika Grygiel y María José Chávez
10 Índice

TEORÍA DEL APEGO, PATERNIDAD Y TRASCENDENCIA .......................345

Julia Benlloch Ponce

MADUREZ AFECTIVA Y MATRIMONIO: REFLEXIÓN INTERDISCI-

PLINAR Y GUÍA DE INTERVENCIÓN .........................................................355
Juan José Pérez-Soba Díez del Corral

NAPROTECNOLOGÍA: EL EFECTO SANADOR DEL AMOR CONYUGAL 365

Mireia Andrés

EL PROCESO DEL PERDÓN EN LA RELACIÓN DE PAREJA DESDE

UNA APROXIMACIÓN AL DINAMISMO DEL DON ....................................377
Agata Kasprzak y Clara Molinero Caparrós

UNA EXPERIENCIA PASTORAL DE ACOMPAÑAMIENTO INTEGRAL

DE LA PERSONA HERIDA DESDE LA ANTROPOLOGÍA CRISTIANA .....389
Óscar García Mulet, Marisa Vendrell Sahuquillo, Narciso Verdejo Callado,
Isabel Lacruz Silvestre y Federico Mulet Valle

ESTILOS EDUCATIVOS PARENTALES. FORJANDO TEJEDORES DE

RELACIONES ................................................................................................ 401
Paloma Alonso-Stuyck

PARENTAL EDUCATIONAL STYLES. FORGING RELATIONSHIP

WEAVERS ...................................................................................................... 419
Paloma Alonso-Stuyck

CONSECUENCIAS DE LAS HERIDAS AFECTIVAS EN LA SALUD

MENTAL ......................................................................................................... 439
José M. Alejos, Saray Bonete y María Lacalle

INTEGRACIÓN PSICO-ESPIRITUAL EN LA VIDA CONSAGRADA:

ITINERARIO DE DISCERNIMIENTO Y ACOMPAÑAMIENTO

EL ENGAÑO ESPIRITUAL COMO DIFICULTAD PARA LA CONSIS-

TENCIA VOCACIONAL: UNA EXPLICACIÓN ANTROPOLÓGICA ............451
Luis María García Domínguez, S.J.

DEL MISTERIO AL MISTERIO: EVANGELIZAR LA SENSIBILIDAD

PARA APRENDER A DISCERNIR ................................................................473
Amedeo Cencini
 Índice 11

INTEGRACIÓN PSICOESPIRITUAL DE LA VOCACIÓN: LA AUTENTI-

CIDAD ............................................................................................................. 485
Montserrat Lafuente Gil

APORTES DE ESTUDIANTES DE POSTGRADO

NEUROSIS Y SANTIDAD A PARTIR DE LA OBRA DE RUDOLF ALLERS ... 503

Oriol Correa Nuño

APROXIMACIÓN PSICOESPIRITUAL DEL MIEDO ...................................515

Gloria Morelló Torrellas

UNA VISIÓN RELACIONAL DE LA PERSONA BASADA EN LA AN-

TROPOLOGÍA CRISTIANA: CONEXIONES Y APORTACIONES A LA
PSICOLOGÍA ACTUAL ................................................................................... 523
Sara Prats García

ANÁLISIS PSICOESPIRUTAL DE LA VIVENCIA DEL PERDÓN EN

VIKTOR FRANKL .......................................................................................... 529
Sheila Gallego Martín

EL AMOR COMO RESPUESTA A LA GENERACIÓN Y - MILLENNIAL ....537

Cecilia Akemi Ponce Sakuray

ANHELO DE SENTIDO EN LA JUVENTUD ACTUAL: CAUSAS Y

EFECTOS ANTROLOPÓGICOS ....................................................................553
Miriam Buxó Hernando

LA INTELIGENCIA ESPIRITUAL EN EL PACIENTE Y EL TERAPEUTA

COMO FACTOR DE BUEN PRONÓSTICO EN PROCESOS PSICÓTICOS
Y DEL ESPECTRO DE LA ESQUIZOFRENIA .............................................563
Ana Revuelto Calleja
 ACEDIA AND PERSONALITY

MArtín f. eChAvArríA
Universitat Abat Oliba CEU, CEU Universities
echavarria@uao.es

INTRODUCTION

The purpose for this paper is to show how Christian anthropology can
help illuminate the understanding of the people who psychologists dedicate
themselves to help. Our reference author for this study is Thomas Aquinas.
Those who know his work realize that it is impossible to synthesize all the
contributions, actual and potential, of this author to a Christian psychology.
Aquinas’s notion of person; his conception of the powers of the soul (especially
of the inner senses and sensitive appetites); and his theory of habits, identifies
but a very few of the seemingly endless list of his contributions (Brennan, 1952;
Echavarría, 2005; Echavarría, 2018). On the other hand, Aquinas is an author
who has significantly influenced contemporary psychology, as demonstrated
through the works of authors such as Rudolf Allers (Echavarría, 2013), Anna
Terruwe (Marchesini, 2013), and Magda Arnold (Cornelius, 2006; Parenti,
2017). This paper will focus on an aspect of his thought that is little known
and studied by psychologists, which is his doctrine of the capital vices (deadly
sins) in general, and the vice of acedia in particular.

1. PERSONALITY THEORY AND MORAL DISPOSITIONS

The best place to find inspiration in Aquinas’s work for the development of a
theory of personality is by referring to the second part of his Summa Theologiae.
It is here that Aquinas develops a complete theory of the principles of human
action, not only from a theological point of view, but also by incorporating the
natural contributions of philosophical discourse. Among these principles is the
concept of habitus, which plays a fundamental role in this discourse. The Latin
term “habitus,” or “habit” in English, is not to be confused with the common
English translation as “costume.” Within its context here, the word habitus
comes from the Latin word “habeo,” which means, being disposed to a certain
88 MArtín f. eChAvArríA

way of behavoir. As used here, this word designates a type of disposition, as

Aquinas explains in Section I-II of his Summa Theologiae (Aquinas, 1988).
Habits are dispositions of the powers of the human soul, both the sensory and
the rational. Habits are also dispositions of the appetitive and the cognitive
powers, by which these are inclined more towards one mode of functioning
than another. To be a habit, a disposition must be stable (difficile mobilis), and
not merely a passing state. Human powers have an indetermination, which
is completed by learning. This completion of power is given by these habits,
which can be either cognitive (intellectual), or ethical.
Ethical habits constitute character. The word ethics comes from the
Greek “ēthos” (with the Greek letter eta), which means character. Character
is, therefore, the set of ethical habits that are embraced by an individual.
Ethical habits are of an affective nature, since it is through these habits that
individuals are connaturalized with the ends and goods to which they tend by
their appetites. The habits that adequately dispose individuals toward goods
and ends are the virtues; those that inadequately inclines them towards true
goods and ends are called vices. In a theologian like Aquinas, moreover, there
are not only habits acquired by human effort, but there are also habits that
are infused by God into souls by Grace, which are the infused virtues. These
do not derive from human effort but from the gift of Grace.
Habits play an organizing, and therefore unifying, role in human capacities
on two levels (Hampson, 2012; Hulsey & Hampson, 2014). First, each habit
perfects some power of the soul with respect to some area of action. For
example, the virtue of temperance perfects the sensitive appetite so that it is
properly disposed towards the desire for sensitive pleasures, especially the
more intense pleasures such as ones of drinking, eating and sex. This virtue,
therefore, is the regulator of human actions that move in this area of life. But
in addition, habits are organically connected to each other. This is especially
true of the virtues, which, according to the classical Aristotelian doctrine that
Aquinas follows, are connected: one cannot have one fundamental virtue
without having the others (Echavarría, 2020). The moral virtues are connected
in the virtue of prudence, while the infused virtues, as well as the totality of all
virtues, are connected in charity. Charity is the most perfect virtue., because
it is charity that gives form to the virtuous character inasmuch as, by ruling
over the acts of all the virtues, it also causes the total organization of the
Christian personality. The virtues are not homogeneous nor are they cultivated
separately. The virtues form an organism. It is for this reason Aquinas, in
Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 161, a. 5, ad 2, refers to the moral character as
an “ordinata virtutum congregatio”–the ordered set of virtues (Aquinas, 1988,
p. 1763). While there are a multiplicity of dispositions which are unified from
 Acedia and Personality 89

that which gives them their form, it is the virtue of charity that is the most
perfect of all.
These teachings have an unexplored potential to inspire psychologists’
theory of personality. As such, they constitute a true Theology of Personality,
which we cannot explain here without straying too far from the subject upon
which we wish to expound (Echavarría, 2018).

2. THE CONNECTION OF THE VICES

The opposite of the virtues are the vices. It is important to stress the
difference between the concept of vice and that of sin. Sins are bad human acts.
As acts, they are punctual, passing, flowing facts. On the other hand, vices are
the dynamic traces that sin leaves in our character. They are dispositions to
commit acts of sin. Aquinas states that, unlike the virtues, all the vices cannot
be connected.
Understanding why all the vices cannot be connected requires an
understanding that the true good of the individual comes from God, who
unifies hierarchically all the good participated in all creatures. Sin and
vice are a separation from true good. In order to allow immersion of self in
the search for the autonomous enjoyment of these created goods, men and
women disperse their psychic forces. In this sense, sin and vice, which are in
opposition to true good, have a corrosive effect on every individual’s character
and personality. Sins and vices are not hierarchical, nor can they all be
possessed simultaneously or in connection. An example of this can be found in
the vices of vainglory and pusillanimity, which are contrary to each other and
cannot be possessed simultaneously and in connection. (Echavarría, 2020).
This does not, however, mean that there is no connection between
and among some particular vices. On the contrary, disordered moral life
would be totally incomprehensible if we could not develop a psychological
understanding of it from the experience of the connection of certain vicious
dispositions (Echavarría, 2020). For example, lying and fraud often depend
on avarice. When someone has a disorderly desire for wealth and possessions,
that person generally does not stop to contemplate deceit and lying. For this
particular case, if we do not understand that the person is avaricious–that
is, that this person has a stable inner disposition of disorderly appetite for
wealth–we will not understand why he or she is a liar. Likewise, if we do not
heal his or her greed, we will hardly be able to heal their inclination to lie,
which depends on and is a consequence of it.
90 MArtín f. eChAvArríA

Aquinas, in Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 84, a. 4, explains that this connection

between some vices can be studied according to two perspectives (Aquinas,
1988):
a. The first perspective is the one that attends to individual dispositions;
that is, to personality in its uniqueness. Thus, each person has their
own habitual appetitive inclinations, by reason of their temperament
and biography; and, by reason of these, that person is more inclined
to be attracted to one good than to another. This can occur according
to innumerable individual variables and cannot be subject to science
or technique, since the latter can only attend to what occurs in the
generality of cases (ut in pluribus). This corresponds to what Allport
calls an “idiographic” perspective (Allport, 1961). It deals with the
dominant vices in a particular subject, what is sometimes called the
“dominant passion or vice.” As an example, the vice of pusillanimity
or fear can be dominant in a person and cause other vices as an end,
even if those vices do not appear in the list of the deadly sins.
b. The second perspective is the one that attends to the order of the
goods or ends to which the appetite tends. In general, a sin tends to be
committed to achieve the end of a principal vice–the so-called “capital
vice.” One vice can be considered essentially connected with another
when it is observed that it is connected to a capital vice. Unlike the
previous case, individual personalities are not being considered here.
However, as in the previous case, objective connections between vices,
which tend to occur in the majority of cases, are included here. There
is, then, a connection between vices, insofar as, in general, and by
the very nature of the goods to which those vices tend in a disorderly
way, some vices are subordinated to others. This has to do with an
essential connection between the means and the ends which, if it does
not always occur, is due to the intervention of contingent causes.
Since the first perspective, which pertains to individual consideration,
cannot be subjected to a universal discourse, we will leave this aside. Instead,
we will focus on the second perspective, which is the one that gives rise to the
doctrine of the capital vices.
Capital vices are those stable moral dispositions–the very features of the
moral character–which exist outside the order or right reason to which we are
so favorably disposed. The ends of capital vices are so important or attractive
that they become the head that cause other sins and vices to arise.
Aquinas’s conception of capital vices is mainly inspired by that of St. Gregory
the Great, who classifies seven capital vices: vainglory, envy, acedia, anger, greed,
 Acedia and Personality 91

gluttony and lust (González Vidal, 2014); and he enriches it with the works of other
authors, such as Cassian and St. Isidore. To be clear, this doctrine considers that
there are some disordered dispositions of character (moral vices), which have
a special importance for understanding the psychology of sin. This importance
does not lie in the gravity of the sin to which these vices incline. There are very
serious vices that are not among the capitals (such as hatred, infidelity or despair,
all which go against the theological virtues); and there are vices that incline to sins
that are generally venial, such as gluttony. It is not therefore appropriate to call
them “deadly sins,” because not all of them are grave in themselves. To be clear,
they are not “capital” vices in the sense that committing a capital vice warrants
the “capital punishment” of death. Instead, they are capital vices because they
are the head (caput) of other vices, in the sense that each one of them generally
causes a cluster of vices, a kind of “moral syndrome,” which is inexplicable if it is
not redirected to the vice that originates it.
For example, according to St. Gregory and St. Thomas Aquinas, vainglory
causes vices such as boasting, presumption of originality, hypocrisy,
stubbornness, discord and/or disobedience. These defects of character are
psychologically linked to vainglory, and therefore form a kind of moral
syndrome. If we meet a person who shows behaviors in line with several of
these vices, we can infer that the causal root is found in vainglory; and that,
if we do not face the healing of this vice, it will be difficult to fight the others
that have their cause in this (Echavarría, 2020).
A great part of human problems in general, and problems related to
character in particular, would be better understood, and could be better dealt
with, if this classic doctrine of the capital vices were known and properly
understood. Recognizing this would provide valuable insights for not only
spiritual counselors but also for professional psychologists, who could use this
knowledge to better understand and help their clients.
It is outside the scope of this paper to provide a discussion regarding
how each capital vice can lead to a cluster of vices-or, as referred to here,
moral syndromes. But for purposes of providing a better understanding of
this concept, this paper will instead focus on a discussion of one example,
constructed around the capital vice of acedia, which (not coincidently) offers
particular applicability to psychology.

3. ACEDIA AS THE CENTER OF A SPIRITUAL SYNDROME

A particularly interesting example of a moral syndrome among the capital

vices is the vice of acedia (akedia in Greek, acedia or accidia in Latin). This is
92 MArtín f. eChAvArríA

a vice to which the Desert Fathers drew attention in their doctrine on the eight
thoughts that beset the monk, and which Aquinas unifies with the Tristitia of
the doctrine of St. Gregory the Great. In the list of the capital vices, today it is
usually called “sloth;”, but in Aquinas, “acedia” is different from this “working
sorrow” that is opposed to the virtue of diligence.
Aquinas uses the word acedia to refer to two different but related realities.
In the first place, the word acedia designates a passion, or, in the language
of today’s psychology, an emotion (Echavarría, 2019). Passions are acts of
the sensitive appetite and therefore an essentially mobile reality. In Summa
Theologiae, I-II, q. 35, a. 8, Aquinas considers it one of the species into
which sadness is divided. This follows the De Fide Orthodoxa of Saint John of
Damascus, which distinguished four kinds of sadness:
1) Mercy, the sadness of the evil of others;
2) Envy, the sadness of the good of others;
3) Anguish, a sadness that is felt as a weight on the soul; and finally
4) Acedia, which is a sadness so deep that it prostrates and depresses
the spirit, completely paralyzing the person who suffers it (Aquinas,
1988)
There is a second type of acedia, which is a stable disposition of character,
a habit. This is the capital vice.. It is, therefore, a disposition to suffer the kind
of sadness that is called acedia.. But not just any kind of acedia, but that which
has as its object the inner divine good.
To understand what this means we must remember that vices are
dispositions that involve a deprivation of a good. They cannot be fully
understood without reference to the good that they deprive, that is, the virtue
that they oppose. As Aquinas explains in Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 28
(Aquinas, 1988, pp. 121-124), the virtue opposed to acedia, which is a capital
vice, is charity; or, to be more specific, acedia is opposed to joy, which is one
of the effects of charity. In order to better understand this peculiar disposition
of the character we call acedia, a bit more explanation is in order.
Charity is a theological virtue. Therefore, it is infused by God into the soul
with Grace. Through charity, a relationship of friendship is established between
God and man, in which God has taken the initiative. Through this virtue we
are interiorly disposed to love God not only as a good for us, but as the friend
loves the friend (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 23, a. 1; Aquinas, 1988, p. 1182).
The effects of charity are joy and peace. The affection of love produces what
Aquinas calls the “mutual inherence,” by which lovers have each other inside
the heart. The lover carries the beloved interiorly, not only in his thought, but
 Acedia and Personality 93

also and mainly in his affection. This is what is meant when we say that we
carry someone in our heart. This affective presence, although specified by the
cognitive presence, is different from cognitive presence. This is the source of
a sui generis affective experience, which Aquinas sometimes calls “sensation”
(Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 15, a. 1; Aquinas, 1988, p. 621). Charity, therefore,
realizes an affective presence of the divine Good from which flows a profound
peace and joy. Although, since charity is a supernatural disposition, this joy
is not always felt. It is an effect per se of the possession of the Supreme Good,
which is God.
When charity is extinguished, which cannot be without previous faults,
this interior joy is lost. In Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 35, a. 1, Aquinas links
the word “acedia” with the acidity: “[A]n oppressive sorrow, which, to wit, so
weighs upon man’s mind, that he wants to do nothing; thus acid things are also
cold.” Acedia would therefore derive from an interior cooling of the fervor of
charity, which entails the loss of joy and happiness in God (Aquinas, 1988, p.
1253). In this strict sense, therefore, for Saint Thomas acedia is a very serious
vice because it is opposed to the most perfect of the virtues. Charity is the form
of the organism of the virtues. It is the form of the Christian personality. The
paralyzing sadness in this case is a profound sadness that derives from the
absence of the infinite Good and, therefore, it becomes a maddening sadness
if it were lived with full consciousness.
According to Aquinas (in II-II, q. 35, a. 4), it is this unique nature of
acedia that explains the vices that derive from it as its “daughters,” that is,
the spiritual syndrome in which this vice consists (Aquinas, 1988, p. 1255).
Sadness is not something that in itself produces attraction. Quite the opposite,
sadness produces an escape. In the first place, we have the escape from the
end (fuga finis) to which man is called, which is his perfection in God. This
escape from the end gives rise to the vice of despair (desperatio), as opposed
to the theological virtue of hope (spes). Consequently, to the desperation of the
end follows a stagnation in the search for the means that lead to the end. With
regard to the means that fall under counsel (evangelical counsels), is produced
the vice of pusillanimity. This is a vice that is in opposition to the virtue of
magnanimity. Magnanimity is, as Aquinas explains it (with inspiration from
Aristotle), a kind of super-virtue in that it presupposes the possession of all the
others. It is the virtue that consists in an interior disposition to bring all the
virtues to their maximum display. Magnanimity is like a spiritual generosity in
which the person gives himself completely to the task of spiritual perfection.
It is logical, therefore, that despair leads to pusillanimity, that is, to a life of
mediocrity. But it also affects the fulfillment of obligatory moral precepts,
producing a kind of moral anomie, whereby the fulfillment of these precepts
94 MArtín f. eChAvArríA

is relaxed or simply abandoned altogether. This is what Aquinas calls “torpor

with respect to the precepts.”
As a consequence of this process of relaxation and fall, the person develops
what Aquinas calls “wandering of the mind about the illicit.” Developing this
concept in depth Aquinas says that, since no one can remain in sadness, the
person needs to move in search of a vicarious pleasure, which will replace the
absence of the joy of charity (Aquinas, p. 1255). Not finding the good within
oneself, a person must look for it outside. Thus there is a process of seeking
pleasures that produces a profound instability in all aspects of the personality:
cognitive instability, due to the development of the vice of curiosity, which is a
disordered search for knowledge; instability of the will, due to the mutability
of purposes; bodily restlessness; and the need to change places and have new
experiences. This is the first set of defects caused by acedia, which are in line
with a corrosion of the moral personality and a flight into the exterior.
There is a second set of defects, which have to do with the impugnation
of good. Aquinas says that the person who is sad tends to two things: First, to
escape from what saddens him or her, and that is the movement observed in
that first cluster of vices derived from acedia; and secondly, to challenge that
which causes the sadness.
Two vices derive from this second movement. The first is rancor. This
is a disposition of character by which the person experiences a kind of
resentment towards those persons and institutions that represent and work
to communicate the moral and spiritual good. This resentment produces deep
bitterness in those who have it. Secondly, rancor produces malice–hatred of
the good itself– which is the end of the process of sinking into the syndrome
of acedia.
Thus, we have a set of moral dispositions of character that go together: acedia,
despair, pusillanimity, anomie, curiosity, mutability of purposes, restlessness,
instability, rancor, bitterness, and malice. This is not a mere accidental collection
of traits. This is an essential connection between these dispositions. This
spiritual syndrome would be incomprehensible without redirecting it to acedia
as its cause. Acedia, thus, is an explanatory principle of the psychology of this
profound spiritual and moral disorder, which makes it possible to explain so
many situations of moral lethargy, bitterness and resentment.

4. ACEDIA AND DEPRIVATION OF LOVE

Acedia can serve as a model to understand the situation of those people

who so often come to the consultation of psychologists and psychiatrists, and
 Acedia and Personality 95

who are characterized by having suffered from a deep deprivation of love since
childhood, a condition that has affected the organization of their personalities.
Although we do not intend to establish a univocal correlation, which should be
demonstrated, we think of disorders such as attachment disorders, borderline
personality disorder, what some psychoanalysts have called abandonment
neurosis (Odier, 1948; Guex, 1971), what the Thomistic psychotherapists Anna
Terruwe and Conrad Baars designated as emotional deprivation disorder or
neurosis (Baars & Terruwe). In this case the psychology profession does not
deal with acedia as a capital vice against charity nor as a mere passion or
emotion, but as a disposition of the personality deeply rooted in the sensitive,
imaginative-affective strata of the person.
We have said that charity produces joy as a consequence of the affective
presence of God in the soul. Something similar can be said of other loves, and
especially of that love with which the human person is loved by his or her
mother and father in the bosom of the family. In this order, the first love is that
of the parents. They love their child from the beginning of his or her existence
with a love that cannot yet be reciprocated at that moment. This child, who
in a certain way begins to experience this love from its mother’s very bosom,
comes into the world structurally prepared to receive love from its parents.
This love, felt and welcomed in the child’s interior, also produces an affective
presence of the parents within the child. This presence is not only the cognitive
presence–that of parental imagos–but an affective presence that produces an
inner experience of joy and meaning. This affective presence, which gives rise
to a kind of affective memory of the good of oneself, of one’s parents, and of
reality itself (Palet, 2000), is transformed into the energetic core of all human
development, especially in this early stage of life. This presence puts the
subjective bases for identification with parents as concrete ideals along with
their beliefs and norms of life. This identification will allow the unification of
the personality around what Magda Arnold (1960) called the Self-ideal; and,
eventually, the development of the personality and the moral character by the
virtues.
This affective presence is energetic because at its core it has a symbolic
power derived from the very divine institution of marriage and the family
(Caturelli, 2005, pp. 141-158). All parenthood derives from God (Eph 3, 15).
The action of the parents as parents is a participation of God’s fatherhood and,
therefore, God is the first cause of it. Through this affective presence, God
operates that first activation of the appetite for good in the child. It is for this
reason that affective presence is so connected to the meaning, and with the
direction towards, God. As Winnicott (2005) said, since human nature is well
made, a “good enough mother,”–and not to be diminished in importance, a
96 MArtín f. eChAvArríA

good enough father and a good enough family–are sufficient for this primary
experience of good and love to be given, and, therefore, of the positive meaning
of life to be established. It can be argued that this is one of the profound reasons
marriage as a natural institution has existed from “the beginning” (Mt 19:8).
It is a kind of mysterious reality, but above all a supernatural sacrament,
since the father and mother, united in love, are, to a certain extent, a radiating
source of love and goodness, even independently of personal qualities. In this
sense it is enough that they are “good enough,” especially in the first years of
the child’s life.
This experience of good, of love, of meaning and purpose, can be partially
affected by different causes. Such causes can include the separation and
confrontation between parents who no longer act as a single principle
radiating love and, therefore, cease to be lived by the child (at least partially)
as models. Consequently, the perfective dynamism that derives from this
affective energetic presence of the parents in the child can be diminished. The
consequence of this could be the lack of security in one’s own worth, and the
difficulty of configuring a completely unified personality towards an end. But
when something more serious happens, such as when the child experiences
hostility, violence, or merely the lack of love, the result can be more dramatic.
Instead of that inner, affective presence of the parental principle within the
child, such cases can create a vacuum, or even a kind of experience of evil of
oneself and the world, along with hatred of oneself and the world. This inner
experience of emptiness and deprivation, which is the evil, can create as a
consequence a psycho-moral paralysis, which is a deep sadness. This sadness
is acedia–a sadness that weigh so heavily that it can leave a person morally
prostrate.
Since no one can live in constant pain, as happens with acedia in its
most proper sense, there is the double phenomenon of the flight from evil,
and consequently from interiority, and the challenge to that which increases
the feeling of that evil.. The first result of this condition is despair. Hope is
a theological virtue that is fundamental in the structuring of the Christian
personality. Consequently, the despair that is opposed to hope is highly solvent
of personality. But in this case we are dealing with the natural hope of being
able to develop one’s own natural potentialities, which is often a characteristic
of young people. Because of the deprivation of that energizing affective
experience of goodness, love, and meaning, the person despairs of his or her
own self-actualization, from which follows a radical difficulty in having an
organized and unified personality.
From this follows pusillanimity, since there will not be a search for
perfection and excellence of character which seems absolutely impossible
 Acedia and Personality 97

and unreal, which has not been experienced in that kind of prelibation of the
possession of the end which is the affective experience of the parents, the adults
who have already arrived, in a certain way, at that end.
Another potential outcome of acedia is anomie with respect to compulsory
moral standards. As a consequence, one can fall into any of the forms of
mental dispersion that Aquinas describes with regard to acedia as a capital
vice, and which fall under the title of mental wandering. Today this mental
wandering can manifest itself through any number of compulsive, dangerous,
and addictive behaviors.
Finally, acedia may result in an individual falling into either or both of
the two attitudes that refer to the challenge of good: resentment and malice.
Resentment, which can be a consequence of experiencing the lack of love, can
result in a person developing an attitude of rejection and defiance of the figures
and institutions that represent authority. Because of its illusory and impossible
nature, malice can result when the good is presented to a person as hateful.
Behind all these attitudes there is a profound emptiness and a deep sadness,
which derives radically from the affective basis of one’s identity.
How does one heal this deep wound? Maintaining a mere therapy of the
virtues (or of emotional regulation), while necessary, is not enough. The reason
it is not enough is because here is missing something more radical than the
possibility of the development of the virtues. What is missing is the inner
experience of love, of goodness, and of meaning.
Some may believe that the resolution of this condition can result
from applying a mere technique, such as the automatic rearrangement of
unconscious contents. However, technique, no matter how profound it may be
intended, cannot touch the affective heart of the human being. It is necessary
to have the experience of being loved as a person. This experience can only
occur in the personal encounter, and it is only in the personal encounter that
this profound dissolution of the psycho-moral structure of the human being can
have a beginning of solution. Only personal love reaches the personal heart. If
this experience of personal love occurs, the effectiveness of character education
and the possible application of certain techniques may work. If this experience
is not given, we will only achieve external and partial improvements., but
even then, the inner emptiness will be on the lookout to reactivate the self-
destructive tendencies of those who have not learned to love themselves and to
love the neighbor. Because grace restores nature, and because the essence of
grace is the inner experience of divine love, many times a wounded relationship
with a parent is radically healed from this experience of God the Father, and
of the people God providentially places on that path, to include, but certainly
98 MArtín f. eChAvArríA

not limited to, the spiritual father, spiritual friendships and, perhaps, the
psychologist. This work requires a healing from the root. While the effects
on the rest of the personality are not generally immediate, a lifelong work is
needed to repair the wounds of the heart.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper has discussed how the traditional doctrine of the capital vices,
as presented by Thomas Aquinas, opens us to a deeper understanding of the
human being. , The value offered by Aquinas’s work is that it provides both an
understanding of the psychology of sin while also offering a better framework
for psychologists and psychiatrists to understand many of the complex
conditions of their clients.
Among the capital vices, the case of acedia is particularly interesting., An in
depth study of Aquinas’ classic Summa Theologiae makes it clear that Aquinas
possessed an acute understanding of acedia. A thorough understanding of
the perspectives presented by Aquinas provides an understanding, within
the context of today of some particular situations that Aquinas himself did
not specifically address in this work, such as the manifestation of acedia that
results within people who have not been loved. The experience of love is the
motor for all personality development, both naturally and supernaturally.
When this experience is damaged, a profound sadness ensues which paralyses
the healthy development of the personality, and which gives rise to the
development of dispositions that are highly destructive of the good and of the
operative unity of the human person.

AFTERWORD

I would like to stress the importance of these ideas for the understanding
of the situation described in this paper regarding people who have not
experienced love within a family. A few years ago, Mercedes Palet drew
my attention to a text by Fr. Léthel that presented the spiritual portrait of
St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Fr. Léthel analyzed four dimensions which,
according to the Saint, corresponds to the four strings of the lyre of the heart,
to include filiation, fraternity, nuptiality, and motherhood (Léthel, 1977, p.
91). These four dimensions could be extended to every human being in that,
for a person to flourish, these four chords of the heart–of filiation, nuptiality,
fraternity, and fatherhood-motherhood–must be developed and be in harmony.
But, at the base of everything is this affective experience of filiation, natural
and supernatural. Without the experience of being a child, one cannot be a
 Acedia and Personality 99

husband or wife, a father or a mother, a brother or a sister, either naturally

or spiritually. Therefore, to heal a profound lack, the inner experience of the
presence of the loved one is necessary.

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