Christian pastoral care and psychoanalytic clinical practice

This article examines the relationship between Orthodox Christian pastoral care and psychoanalytic clinical practice, drawing on the author's dual position as a psychoanalyst and Orthodox believer. Adopting a reflexive and clinical approach, the article seeks to dispel the misunderstandings that fuel mutual rejection between these two fields. The central idea is that psychotherapy and confession are fundamentally distinct undertakings — in their aims, their methods, and their relationship to the subject's responsibility — and that their conflation is the primary source of conflict. The author demonstrates that psychological suffering deserves full pastoral recognition, on a par with physical illness, and that psychoanalysis, far from threatening faith, can foster a self-awareness conducive to a more authentic spiritual life. The theological contribution lies in the articulation between human freedom, the bondage of sin, and the therapeutic process, situated within an Orthodox anthropology of the person.