December 29 – 30: Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary & Joseph
Interview With Dr. Paul Vitz (Part 1)
The spirit of thanksgiving contributes to mental health and ultimately leads to God, says a Catholic (and former atheist) psychologist.
Dr. Paul Vitz is a professor of psychology at the Arlington-based Institute for the Psychological Sciences and a professor emeritus of New York University. He has authored many books, and is co-editor of a new book called "The Self: Beyond the Post-modern Crisis" (ISI, 2006).
Q: As strands of modern psychology are rediscovering the effectiveness of the virtues in the well-being of the person, what interest has there been in the virtue of gratitude?
Vitz: Psychology has discovered gratitude as something to investigate probably only in the last five or 10 years. The best summary of what has been found is in the book that just came out this year and is called "The Handbook of Positive Psychology." In this book, Chapter 33 is a sum-mary of what is known about gratitude.
The authors, R. Emmons and C. Shelton, point out that there has been some popular interest in gratitude in the last five or 10 years, but relatively little serious research in psychology.
So if some psychologist wants to become Mr. Gratitude or Ms. Gratitude, it is one of those fields that are sitting there, ready to be looked at seriously.
Q: What is it about gratitude that makes it such a useful virtue?
Vitz: Gratitude is a very positive virtue. It has positive thoughts associated with it, and above all, positive emotions.
It's the emotion of thankfulness for what other people, or God, have given to you. It brings peace, and it brings a kind of quiet joy. I think it's very clear that those are good emo-tions, good things to have.
We now know that our emotions can also cause bodily changes in us, so I'm convinced that gratitude is not only a positive thought and mentality, but also something good for your body.
Q: In your experience as a psychologist, have you seen any instances where developing gratitude helped a person to overcome a difficulty or illness?
Vitz: I think I have, but you know that you would have to run a controlled experiment to show it, and I haven't done that.
But let's look at the meaning of gratitude in light of the Faith. The very word for the Eucharist, the translation of its meaning is "thanksgiving." And thanksgiving is a way of expressing gratitude to God.
So it's at the centre of the faith. The Eucharist is about Thanks-giving. It makes sense that Our Lord would have asked us to do something that was not only wise and spiritually sound, but psychologically good for us too.
(Concluded next week)