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9. Spiritual Seeking, Therapeutic Culture, and Concern for Others
- University of California Press
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158 9 Spiritual Seeking, Therapeutic Culture, and Concern for Others Much has been written in recent years about the threat posed to the communal web of American society by the increasing displacement of church-based religion in favor of an individualized , personal religion. Most notably, “Sheilaism,” the personal religion embodied by Sheila Larson in the sociology best-seller Habits of the Heart, crystallized for Robert Bellah and his coauthors (1985) how a diffuse and therapeutic spirituality is both narcissistic and detrimental to social and community commitment. Sheila Larson was a nurse who spent many years in therapy; she described her “faith” as “Sheilaism ”—“I believe in God. I’m not a religious fanatic. I can’t remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice. . . . It’s just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself” (Bellah et al. 1985: 221). Sheilaism captures well what Bellah and his coauthors (1985) and other cultural critics (e.g., Lasch 1979; Brooks 2000) perceive to be wrong with today’s spiritual seeking. They argue that a therapeutic, selfcentered , and narcissistic individualism underlies spiritual seeking, and that these self-oriented interests are displacing the socially responsible individualism that has historically characterized American society. In this view, the “triumph of the therapeutic” (Rieff 1966) in post-1960s SPIRITUAL SEEKING, THERAPEUTIC CULTURE 159 America, and the growth of interest in both psychotherapy and spirituality , is portrayed as reflecting a desire for immediate gratification among individuals for whom feeling good has become the prime goal in life in an era when the self is threatened by diminishing cultural and personal expectations and a decline in traditional supportive relationships . In essence, the elevation of personal experience as the arbiter of moral authority, and its lack of grounding in the authority imposed by an institutionalized religious tradition, is seen as detrimental to the practices of spiritual and social commitment that church participation obliges (Bellah et al. 1985). In contrast to the discipline associated with church attendance, Bible reading, and the fasting associated with holy days of obligation (such as Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Yom Kippur, Ramadan), spiritual seeking is thought of as being ad hoc, diffuse, and motivated by the “hunger not for personal salvation, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health and psychic security ” (Lasch 1979: 33). Jane Bell’s midlife preoccupation with personal growth, and her emphasis on teaching her children “to be in touch with themselves and their feelings” (see chapter 1), and Peter Jones’s drifting in and out of marriages in search of an authentic, confident self (chapter 7), could raise concern that self-seeking distracts attention from the needs of others. Whereas churches play a critical role in creating a responsible community, spiritual seeking typically does not entail the same degree of exposure to the parables of service to others repeated in scriptural readings and sermons, the church-based friendship connections that encourage collaboration in volunteer activities, and the organized service opportunities that many churches provide their members (see. e.g., Wuthnow 2004). In short, skepticism toward an individualized spiritual seeking fits well with the sociological view that social institutions are essential to the maintenance of community and society. This skepticism also finds legitimacy in the belief that human nature is ultimately tainted with selfishness, and that consequently social engagement and ritual are vital in order to redeem “original sin.” It reflects well what Perry Miller has referred to as the Puritan fear of the excessive “reeling and staggering” that comes from being intoxicated by one’s own autonomy and self-expression (1956/1964: 192, 203).1 The dim view of spiritual individualism articulated by sociologists such as Bellah and his colleagues (1985) contrasts sharply with the stance taken by humanistic psychologists (e.g., Fromm 1941/1965), [52.90.142.26] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:10 GMT) 160 SPIRITUAL SEEKING, THERAPEUTIC CULTURE who, because they give primacy to the individual’s obligations to the self rather than to society, welcome the spiritual seeker’s focus on the self as a positive personal and social development. From this perspective , it is the established social order, tradition, and conventional religion that alienate individuals from their fundamental purpose in life, that is, from personal growth and self-realization. It is only when individuals reclaim their personal freedom (Fromm 1941/1965) and selfactualize that an altruistic concern for others...