Carol | July 24, 2009
I encourage you to read Philip Greven’s book, Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse
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Here are some quotes from his section on Melancholy and Depression:
“For many people, buried anger becomes the basic source of aggression against the self. The most common form this self-aggression takes…is the emotional experience of depression.” p. 130
“Punishment in childhood always has been one of the most powerful generators of depression in adulthood.” p. 130
“Depression often is a delayed response to the suppression of childhood anger that usually results from being physically hit and hurt in the act of discipline by adults whom the child loves and on whom he depends for nurturance and life itself.” p. 132
“Melancholy and depression have been persistent themes in the family history, religious experience, and emotional lives of Puritans, evangelicals, fundamentalists and Pentecostals for centuries.” p. 132
“They may have successfully thwarted their inner impulses toward self-destruction, but the experience of conversion and the new birth rarely relieved them fully of their depressive symptoms.” p. 132
“Many evangelicals, generation after generation, voiced their anxiety and depression in their diaries, letters, and autobiographies.” p. 132
“Some of the most compelling historical evidence we possess concerning the nature and history of depression comes from the religious tradition associated most directly with Calvinism and evangelical Protestantism over the past four centuries.” p. 133
By the way, I am a Calvinist.
I think the roots go back further than Protestantism, since after all, Martin Luther’s parents weren’t Protestant, and they practiced the corporal punishment tradition.
“Closely linked to the recurrent depression evident in so many individuals is the theme of buried and smoldering anger…visible in many of the most subtle studies of the life histories of Puritan, Calvinist, and evangelical individuals.” p. 133
I think the rage and anger can come out in the form of depression, etc., and also when men release this rage and anger on their wives, and parents release it on their children.
“The long-sustained persistence of melancholy and depression among twice-born Protestants is clearly no accident, since it has consistently been paralleled by the tradition of assault, coercion, and violence against children committed with the rod, the belt, the hand, and other such instruments of parental discipline.” p. 134
“Depression is often the central mood characteristic of adults whose bodies were assaulted, whose wills were broken in childhood, and whose anger was forcibly suppressed. The rage and resentment never disappear; they just take more covert and dangerous forms, dangerous to the self and potentially, to others.” p. 134
Greven’s section about people who are obsessive-compulsive was also very telling. He said, “Obsessives lack a sense of freedom in much of their lives, since they feel compelled by inner impulses and needs to think certain things and to act and feel only certain ways.” He quoted David Shapiro who said, “They mistake what they think they should want for what they actually want, what they think should be their intentions for actual intentions, ideas that they think they should believe for convictions.” That sooooooo reminds me of the evangelical community. Some people are in turmoil because what they feel, think, and want is NOT what they THINK they SHOULD feel, think, or want.
I did a little research on Christian Protestants that have suffered depression, and I was quite surprised. I can’t remember all the names right now, but Martin Luther and Francis Schaeffer come to mind.
“My mother caned me for stealing a nut until the blood came. Such strict discipline drove me to a monastery although she meant it well.” Martin Luther
“My father once whipped me so that I ran away and felt ugly toward him until he was at pains to win me back.” Martin Luther
“[At school] I was caned in a single morning fifteen times for nothing at all. I was required to decline and conjugate and hadn’t learned my lessons.” Martin Luther
“There is just one respect in which Luther appears to have been different from other youths of his time, namely in that he was extraordinarily sensitive and subject to recurrent periods of exaltation and depression of spirit. This oscillation of mood plagued him throughout his life. He testified that it began in his youth and that the depressions had been acute in the six months prior to his entry into the monastery.” Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand p.20
“[Francis] Schaeffer’s son claims he had frequent bouts with depression and a verbally and physically abusive relationship with his wife, Edith.” (source)
http://parentingfreedom.com/discipline/
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