Jacques Maritain and Psychoanalysis

In the 1950s the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain set out to analyze a method within psychology that is often neglected today, the method of psychoanalysis developed by the neurologist Sigmund Freud at the end of the 19th century. This method presupposes that psychological problems generally result from problematic memories that have been repressed. Psychoanalysis enables one to recover the memories that have been lost and thereby restore one's health, what Maritain terms functional liberation. Maritain also accounts for the potential dangers of the analytic method, which demands the lowering of reason and placing oneself into the hands of another. This article takes into account the dangers outlined by Maritain and others. Nevertheless, I argue that the analytic method involves a symbiosis between the conscious and unconscious that curtails as much as possible the harmful effects that may follow such a treatment. According to Maritain, “crises and agony” may accompany Freud's method but with salutary psychological results. The accompaniment of the analyst with the patient through agonistic memories comports with the Christian view of the person and relationship that remains undervalued in Maritain's work.