Penance and confession were, from approximately 1200 to 1975, staple parts of Roman Catholicism; for some Catholics they still are. But as a consequence of the Second Vatican Council, the liturgy of penance was thoroughly reformed and the sacrament was named "reconciliation." What impulses do you think informed this change of name? Clearly the change suggests at least that the Church was somewhat defensive about confession. Indeed, for Catholics who lived in the pre-Vatican II era, confession was a major instrument for teaching them how to think about themselves as adults. Although it was important to confess all sins, there was particular emphasis on sexual sins, and this emphasis did as much to intimidate adolescents as to encourage them to think about their maturity.
If you are interested in psychology--who indeed is not?--you might want to think instead about the relation between the confession (as healer and advisor) and the psychoanalyst or therapist. What leads people to seek the help of these professionals? You should, as you read the Penance module, think about the differences between therapists and analysists and the physician-healers discussed in medieval penitential texts. There is one big difference that creates lots of others: Confession and penance were seen, metaphorically, as cures for sickness or disease. A cure takes care of, replaces, heals--it puts health in the place of sickness, and in the penitential system it did this when the sinner confessed sincerely and the priest absolved him or her. No therapist absolves his or her client: what is theraputic about therapy is, in the long run, healing, but there's no attempt in therapy to "take away" the client's sins. Confession and penance did, and still do, that. As you read, you might ask yourself if confession is therapeutic in a sense comparable to psychotherapy?
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