My Personal ACTr Matrix (Part II)
Redemptive Suffering, Reasoned Judgment, and Ultimate Values
Acceptance as Redemptive Suffering
Accepting and approaching our feelings as morally neutral while pursuing what is of actual, personal value is a major tenet of ACT/ACTr. In some ways, it is emptying feelings of their meaning and instead redirecting one’s self toward values and moving forward in committed action.
A Catholic take on feelings would be more nuanced. Feelings can be neutral as in bodily emotions, but because we are body-soul unity, we also have spiritual affections. Spiritual affections can be oriented toward love or hate just as neutral feelings. Affections are not neutral. A parent having a feeling of love (affection, gratitude, delight, etc.) toward a child is not neutral. A parent having a feeling of hate (disaffection, disgust, etc.) toward a child is not neutral, either. If you have any doubts, ask yourself if you can enter Heaven with a feeling of disgust towards another person, even if that person was in Heaven with you. There are bodily emotions that do not have this kind of value-responding – they are just emotions which occur as reactions to hunger pains, the weather, chemical imbalances, etc. Lest we fall into some kind of dualism, Catholics might say we have embodied and ensouled feelings. The distinctions are helpful insofar as we try to unravel the mystery of being body-soul composites. It would have been simpler if God had made us with clearer, boxed capacities (i.e., these are my “animal-like” qualities and these are my “angelic-like” qualities), but then we would be far less mysterious and marvelous creations from a wondrous and wise Creator.
Acceptance, therefore, can be a meaning-enriched undertaking. Acceptance is not always a mere blank-faced receptivity of meaningless splinters embedded in our skin. They are sometimes meaningful crosses we have been tasked to bear for the greater glory of God. Through Jesus’ carrying of His own cross, He has given meaning to all suffering. Every cross we bear is a sharing in His Passion. As He bore the weight of our sins, so we unite our suffering to His. This is an acceptance that is not just an individual mental exercise as in ACT – it is a relationship-context of accepting suffering for the sake of the beloved … it is suffering united to Jesus and suffering for the sake of another. This is redemptive suffering. It is not suffering for suffering’s sake, but for the sake of love. I am grateful to Carole Tessier, a friend studying at Divine Mercy University, for reminding me of this profoundly important element of mental health through a Catholic lens. A self-as-beloved perspective provides a person with the unique ability to never suffer alone, because God is ever-present and has suffered in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Cognitive Evaluation to Non-Judgmental Observation to Reasoned Judgment
I am all for an initial non-judgmental observation of thoughts and feelings. That first step can be helpful, especially when we are experiencing a high degree of fusion (or “equating” our selves to our thoughts and feelings). However, here are several nuances:
We would not have taken that approach to non-judgmentally observe unless we had initially made a snap judgment (cognitive judgment) that the thought or feeling was aversive. It is then that the person decides to pivot to “non-judgmental observation.” Again, this is practical when needing some of that “distancing,” but I believe most of us are usually evaluating thoughts and feelings as “good” or “bad” as evidenced by deciding which thoughts and feelings to non-judgmentally observe and which ones to “let ride” and in which to relish and rest.
Speaking of relishing and resting, non-judgmental observation of thoughts and feelings can distance us from healthy affections if there is not a cognitive (pre-rational) judgment that the affection is good. A person does not look at his or her child and feel an emotion of gratitude followed by a defusion (or distancing) exercise. A person would benefit more from a mindful acceptance exercise – studying the child’s face, pondering the immortal soul behind those eyes, wondering at the gift this child is, holding that gaze in sustained attention and continuously drawing that attention back to the child when the person’s mind starts to wander. This is to make the point that there is inherent judgment in knowing when to be non-judgmental.
In practicing defusion or non-judgmental observation (via present moment awareness and self-as-context), there can be a temptation to absolve all thoughts and feelings of their moral weight, reflection of the self in an inner dialogue, and even whether or not the thought or feeling could actually be helpful in pursuing values. By entering into an observation of one’s own thoughts and feelings via self-as-beloved-by-God, one can view those thoughts and feelings in the light and truth of His Love. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8). It’s been said before that once you start thinking about how grateful you are for the sunset you are watching, you stop being grateful as your affections are rerouted to reason and self-observation.
Ultimate Values Grounding My Personal Values
One of the elements which can make Catholics wary of adopting an ACT or ACTr approach is the concept of personal values. For Catholics well-formed in official teachings of the Church regarding morality, the idea that values can be personal gives the intimation that values are subjective (i.e., what is true, good, and beautiful is in the eye of the beholder). Many people do subscribe to this subjective, relativistic point-of-view. Like many things in Catholicism, there is a both/and understanding here. As a side note, I think the answer is in marrying Catholic phenomenology to Catholic metaphysics, and I am beyond excited to read this recently published book: The Personalism of Edith Stein: A Synthesis of Thomism and Phenomenology.
There are ultimate values that correspond to our human nature and transcend our individual experiences, and there are personal values instantiated in our unique personhood and experiences. Personal values are not bad – God speaks through our personal experiences (phenomenologically) and the historical-narrative (verbal behavior used to categorize and sequence our experiences over time). Those personal experiences and the story being written (born out of those experiences) form our personal values. These personal values are oriented toward our good insofar as they are grounded in the ultimate values of our human nature. What is our human nature? We are body-soul composites that reason, will, and affect (emote). What value do we reason toward? What value do we “will” toward? What value do we affect toward?
I have been writing for a while on ultimate values of truth, freedom, and care as corresponding to our intellect (reason), will (volition), and heart (affection). Suffice it to say, we think because we want to know the truth, we act towards freedom for goodness (and from evil), and we feel affection for persons.
Below are several examples of personal values needing ultimate values in a Catholic framework:
The personal value of learning would be most aligned to reason (i.e., usually covert verbal behavior), so learning should be guided by the ultimate value of truth.
The personal value of self-discipline would be most aligned to behavior in general (i.e., behavioral outputs of selecting, doing, aiming, etc.), so self-discipline should be guided by the ultimate value of responsible freedom for goodness and excellence
The personal value of family would be most aligned to affection (emotional behavior as distinctly human such as interpersonal), so family should be guided by the ultimate value of care (love).
Here is where it gets complicated. Learning also involves self-discipline and sometimes in the context of family. Unsurprisingly, the corresponding ultimate values of truth, freedom, and care are inseparable because reasoning, willing, and affecting are co-occurring behaviors in the beautiful nexus of compound behaviors (both covertly and overtly), biological processes, and (for Christians) spiritual movements. Discerning which value to serve at any given point is where the (difficult) fun begins.
May God bless you for reading (or even skimming) this far.
Sincerely,
The Catholic Behavior Analyst
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