Healing The Mind

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30442, 16 May 1964, Page 4

Healing The Mind

Psychotherapy: A Christian Approach. By Ducker. Alien and Unwin. 123 pp. Index.

The Christian Church has long been aware of the inward drives and motives that dominate men and women and which often lead to disastrous results. Without self-ad-vertisement the Church has provided trained counsellors —while not intruding on the specialised region of the psychiatrist—and their work has been of immense value. To mention one such counsellor and practitioner—the Rev Dr. Leslie Weatherhead—is sufficient to indicate the value of such skilled service. Canon Ducker is an acknowledged specialist and has for a number of years been available to all sorts and conditions of people who are perturbed mentally and have lost grip. He mentions some of his cases, particularly

stresses that are results of careless upbringing, As a Christian minister he is greatly concerned about the attitude of the Church, as a whole, to this form of healing. He rightly holds that psychology is a handmaid of religion, “if religion is not concerned with the inner life of man what nonsense is made of religion.” In his concern to point a moral Canon Ducker indulges in too many religious homilies which frankly do not advance his thesis. He discusses the Bishop of Woolwich’s book “Honest of God,” and the book of the Dean of Trinity College without adding anything of value of his own observations and proven results. Though the writing is somewhat involved, it will repay the close attention of readers who believe that the Christian approach to psychotherapy is a valid and much needed one.