Review: Freud by R.J. Rushdoony

In this book Rushdoony discusses about the ideas of Freud from a Christian perspective. No doubt Christians would have concern with his ideas. The biggest thing I got out of this book is Rushdoony’s point that Freud’s biggest contribution was not explaining man in terms of unconscious forces or sex driven but rather his theme of explaining away guilt in such a way that man is no longer responsible for his or her sins before a God that he or she will have to give an account to one day. This is where Rushdoony’s strength comes in: his ability to cite people and their ideas comes into play when he documents people who was before Freud that proposed explaining man in terms of the unconscious and sex driven. While Rushdoony cites sources no later than the 1960s I think his analysis of Freud’s impact today still rings true. Rushdoony interact with some of the biographers who wants to paint Freud as a morally upright man, and also unmasks the real Freud. Rushdoony also points out that the followers of Freud has engage in a revision of his idea, in that while Freud did not think man can be changed (the goal is just observation and knowing man has a problem), present psychoanalysis is inconsistent with Freud’s original insight. Good critique. I love how Rushdoony’s critique is able to penetrate more deeper than just pointing out the nonscientific origin and status of Freud’s ideas. As always, Rushdoony is able to demonstrate that Freud’s attack on religion is not just anti-religious, but Freud is religious as well, of course in a Secular Humanistic fashion. Ever conscious of the dangers of Statism, Rushdoony also points out the ramification of Freud’s idea as undermining liberty and freedom as well: “If we think in terms of sin, we imply responsibility and hence restitution and punishment. If we think in terms of mental illness, we deny responsibility and make it a medical or psychiatric matter. As a poster widely circulated in the 1950’s stated it, ‘Mental sickness is no disgrace. It might happen to anyone.’ In other words, there is no responsibility. This means that man, not being responsible, has no true liberty, and hence not entitled to civil liberties either. He can be hospitalized indefinitely for crime and experimented on by psychiatrists. He has no rights” (43-44).

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Depression Poem

This is a poem that I wrote in response to a medical student I met a few years ago who was dealing with severe depression.  On many occasions, he contemplated suicide.  I pray that this poem will help you see clearly what happens in the world of a suicidal person.  Only the power of the Gospel is able to usher in light to these hurting people.

I am not sure what has happened to this young man since we last corresponded a few years ago, but I pray that the Lord Jesus will rescue him from his dismal situation.

August 14

Your on a leave of absence due to depression/

PLACING YOU IN A STATE OF REPRESSION/

This depression is like a negative chain reaction/

No satisfaction, just dissatisfaction/

SIN WANTS YOU IN A STATE OF POSSESSION/

Because your soul has a dark contraction/

Going through this self-hating, suicidal depression/

Satan wants you as a puppet on a string, as a penpal, under his oppression/

It’s been around a year and a half/

You don’t remember what its like to be happy/

Your world is dark and scrappy/

This symptom of depression makes you feel like a bird/

Trapped in a room/

Thinking, getting ready to explode like a time-bomb/

You say that you prayed alone on a parking lot that night/

You say you saw light at the end of the tunnel/

Amen, your last farewell could of ended in hell/

After hearing a message on Psalm 1/

About the happy man/

Who is not a hangman/

You feel like you could live again/

September 14

When your stomach hurted/

You did not eat/

Sin wanting you in its evil habitat/

You didn’t sleep because your head hurts from not sleeping/

Depression making you have suicidal thoughts/

Becoming prey to depression’s bloodshot, worse than a gunshot/

With very unrealistic plans/

It gets more sickening/

Sin tryin’ to destroy you with everything/

You have suicidal, unrealistic, death fantasies that are gruesome and disturbing/

Like watching yourself being hung and crucified at the same time/

Your soul is close to drowning in its riptide in this war time/

You enjoyed it/

You allowed it for a time/

Locked in its cockpit/

Didn’t fight those thoughts for a time/

Despite knowing how sin is detrimental/

Worse than a root canal/

Seems like things are hard for you/

September 24

Your last long e-mail correspondence/

Worth more than dollar and cents/

You were rushed into the ER/

Because of plus chills, nausea, and vertigo/

You had to get up and go/

You lost alot of fluids/

From watery diarrhea and vomiting like 20 times/

With everything inside at that time/

Lost 10 pounds in three days/

You vomited all over your bathroom/

On the walls and on the floors/

You had to return back to the ER/

Because the symptoms continued to occur/

Even after the meds/

You were still going back to the bathroom multiple times per hour/

Continuing to be susceptible to its power/

You say things are well/

Just 2 months ago/

You were close to that fatal blow/

That close to suicide/

Truly you live each day by grace/

I pray that God will seal you in His saving grace/

I feel your pain, but be careful, spiritual depression will rob you/

Away from God’s joy/

Enemy and sin wants to employ and destroy/

Step away from your hedonistic thoughts/

And step into this thought/

The Christ who suffered for our spiritual blood cloths/

The Christ suffered from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M./

For six hours Christ became a curse/

For those who would repent and believe that live in the universe/

For six hours divine wrath was inflicted and received by the One alone able to do so/

He took blows from His Father in order to forgive His foes/

For six hours—silent, willful submission, by the Lamb of God, the Servant of Yahweh/

While sinners sin day by day, night and day, Christ gave us the right of way/

For six hours—Jesus bore the full burden of sins past, present, and future/

He bore out trespasses—100 percent for sure, for Christ spiritually poor/

For six hours—the Father smote the Son with full wrath He alone could render/

So salvation could occur from him and her/

This was the spiritual darkness that was covering the cross/

God turning away from His Son was severe/

The atonement was never at loss/

The wrath of God came from God the Father/

It was a direct act of God/

When He cracked and smacked His Son/

The Christ had to suffer/

He dranked the cup of the full wrath of God/

For the vice squad and sinful squad/

Read 2 Corinthians 5:21/

Christ died for sin/

So sinners won’t experience His wrath in the end/

Sinners who sin time and time again who belong in the trash bin/

The Father treated and regarded Christ as if He was a sinner/

When Satan saw this he taught that he was a winner/

All sins were charged against the Christ as if He had personally committed them/

Listen, don’t you understand an innocent man was condemned/

Christ was punished with the penalty for them on the cross/

So that those who were supposed to be condemned won’t suffer a loss/

As a result He experienced the full fury of God’s wrath/

Worse than those who suffer from a bloody warpath/

It was at that moment when Christ cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me”/

So you could be set free as a guarantee because your Christ’s electee/

Christ never sin, but was perfect, but because He took on sin He was left in solitude/

Mocked by the crude multitude who had demonic sinful attitudes with no gratitude/

Listen, this was the darkest moment/

The Christ, in frequent torment/

In that last few hours of His suffering, it was spiritual solitude/

Worse than Him being nude or mocked by the rude/

This was the most painful part/

Left Him alone without child support/

The Father stepped away from Him/

Because of sins grim/

So I ask you—repent and believe in the Gospel so you could flee from the wrath to come/

A path that you won’t overcome/

Don’t be deaf and dumb or continue to be a sinful slum/

Listen to the prophetic outcome that is the rule of thumb/

I tell you/

Come to the Christ if you are depressed and weary/

Your hard-pressed and you think your eerie/

Come to Christ, be blessed, and don’t think this is a theory/

The Gospel is your treasure chest, your day of rest when your suppressed/

Unpublished work © 2013 EvangelZ

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