|
Two Approaches to Pastoral
Counselling Compared.
Larry Crabb
And
Jay Adams
In this essay I will compare the approaches to pastoral
counselling of Larry Crabb and Jay Adams through their books Understanding
People and Competent to Counsel. It may seem odd to compare two conservative evangelicals,
yet I believe that their models show significant differences which lie at
the heart of counselling. These issues include:
- How should
the Scriptures be used in establishing our counselling models?
- What is at
the core of pastoral problems?
- How do people
change? And what should they
change into?
After giving an overview of their respective books I will conclude
by assessing their answers to these questions.
Understanding People
In the preface, Crabb differentiates between the ‘Self-Love
theorists’ and the ‘Stiff Exegetes’, of which he appears to believe Adams
is a member.
‘Is Jay Adams more biblical because he teaches
that people need God and only God, not improved self-images?’ (p8)
Crabb differentiates between Adams and James Dobson and, in the
context, it seems he believes those two to be representatives of the two
camps: Stiff Exegetes and Self-Lovers.
Crabb sees himself in neither group but calls for mutual
understanding between Christian counsellors.
1)
articulate our
positions carefully and non-defensively
2)
maintain a
willing openness to change positions
3)
self-consciously
labour to walk the tight-rope of open conviction
In the introduction, Crabb defines psychological disorder as ‘the
product of the sinful pursuit of life apart from God.’ (p21). Notice that Crabb is not focussing on
sins per se (unbiblical behaviour), rather his focus is the wrong
strategies accompanying idolatrous goals – whether such living produces
gross misbehaviour or not.
After defending the sufficiency of Scripture,
chapters 3 and 4 explore how counsellors have responded to
sufficiency.
1)
Scripture is not
sufficient for counselling issues (only salvation issues) – we
must therefore turn to secular models (at least at points).
2)
Scripture
directly answers every legitimate question.
Crabb gives the necessary outcome of position 2:- If a question is
not asked by the bible, it is not a legitimate question. Of course the
corollary is that all presenting issues must be redefined as questions
which a straightforward exegesis of Scripture answers. Anything outside of this narrow scope
is not a valid struggle for a person to have. It seems likely Crabb would
put nouthetic counselling in this category – he virtually quotes their
creed under a discussion of position 2.
‘The thinking of many is that psychological
problems, when examined closely, will be recognized as nothing more than
the fruit of unbiblical living.
Therefore the cure is to teach people how to live, reprove
them for living wrongly, correct them when they go astray, and
train them in godly patterns of living. And the Bible (in the 2 Timothy passage) claims to be
profitable for exactly those tasks.’ (p55)
Yet Crabb expresses his reservations.
1)
It is possible to
give to the literal meaning of the text a comprehensive relevance that it
simply does not have;
2)
When the range of
permissible questions is narrowed, our understanding of complicated problems
tends to become simplistic.
3) More than this, our assessment of problems
and our biblical solutions are confined to behavioural
issues. This leads to outward
conformity rather than inner change based on changed goals and
strategies. It is to produce
legalism rather than vulnerability and dependence. (p56ff)
His position (3) comes in chapter 4: both the content and the
implications of Scripture are included in sufficiency.
‘When I argue for biblical sufficiency, I am suggesting that every question
a counselor… needs to ask is
answered by both the content of Scripture and its implications.’p62
– italics mine. Crabb goes on,
‘All problems are problems of relationships and the Bible is a textbook
for relational living…’ (p62)
‘…The idea of biblical sufficiency for counseling rests on the
assumption that biblical data support doctrinal categories which have the
implications that comprehensively deal with every relational issue of
life.’ (p63)
This allows him to explore deeper issues in personal problems than
simple deviations from biblical norms.
Crabb pursues this ‘deeper’ exploration by examining the image of God. It is significant that Crabb’s account of the imago
Dei is central to his counselling model, but peripheral to Adams’ (Competent
to Counsel, p128). While
Adams tends to see human flourishing as self-evidently equated with
obedience to biblical standards, flourishing for Crabb comes in living
out our God-intended image.
The image for Crabb speaks of similarity. People are fallen image bearers (the image is marred not lost). Crabb discusses various historical
accounts of the imago Dei:
dominion, moral virtue, amoral capacity, similarity. Crabb argues for
‘similarity’ and teases that out to mean personhood. He identifies four aspects to
personhood as 1) deep longings; 2) evaluative thinking; 3) active
choosing and 4) emotional experiencing. Man is therefore personal,
rational, volitional and emotional. (p94-96)
As Crabb discusses our being as personal
creatures he states that ‘the core problem in the human personality, the
real culprit behind all non-organically caused human distress [is] a
steadfast determination to remain independent of God and still make life
work.’
(p106, italics his)
We have a Hollow Core
which we attempt to fill apart from God.
Jeremiah 2:13 is a
foundational verse for all of Crabb’s work. His entire approach can be seen as an exposition of this
verse in the realm of pastoral counselling. We forsake the LORD – the well-spring of living waters –
and hew for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. We foolishly and wickedly forsake the
LORD who alone can satisfy our Hollow Core and we attempt to find
fulfilment outside of Him. This is wrong in itself yet it’s usually only
when our broken cisterns really fail us that our lives fall apart
and we end up in counselling.
‘Whatever we turn to in order to find
satisfaction becomes our god. Our determination to fill the Hollow Core
becomes our tyrant, and we revolve our lives around whatever we wrongly
believe will provide the fullness we desire.’ (120). Though
Crabb never uses the word, idolatry is at the heart of his approach.
Since this is the case, change is not
about ‘a simple decision to conform one’s behaviour to biblical standards. [What we need is] deep repentance that
concerns itself with the subtle, perverse loyalties of a deceitful
heart.’ (p123).
Crabb (contra Adams) believes that these motives of the heart are
most often hidden from ourselves.
While he is committed to saying we are agents (not just victims)
even at the subconscious level, he also claims that we are mostly unaware
of the sinful strategies we have adopted to seek life outside of
Christ. Yet (Prov 20:5) though
the purposes of a man's heart are deep waters… a
man of understanding draws them out.
This is what real counseling is all about.
Here Crabb develops an ‘iceberg’ view of human personality.
- behaviour
CONSCIOUS -
beliefs
- emotions
W A T
E R L
I N E
- beliefs
UNCONSCIOUS - images
- pain
Concerning the waterline Crabb says, ‘If no work is done beneath
the water line, then work done above the water line results in a
disastrous externalism in which visible conformity to local standards is
all that matters… That community will be characterized by pressure,
judgmentalism, legalism and pride rather than by deep love for God and
others… Pastors and other Christian leaders who work only above the water
line produce either robots or rebels.’ (p144).
Concerning the subconscious, Crabb is keen to demonstrate that
this is not a capitulation to a Freudian syncretism. Crabb is at pains to insist that his
understanding of the unconscious is Biblical – e.g. Prov 20:5; Heb 3:13. Crabb is also keen to stress that we
are not victims of our unconscious, but that even the unconscious level
represents goals and strategies which we have chosen to make life
work apart from Christ. ‘Within ourselves we are entirely agents.’ (p145)
The remainder of the book outlines our duty to expose subterranean
motives through the Word of God, the Spirit of God and the People of God.
In doing this we unearth relational pain and how it has given rise to
self-protective (pain reducing, Christ-denying) patterns of relating. The
counselee can then see their foolish and wicked goals, repent of them,
seek the LORD and His fullness and move forward in vulnerable, dependent
obedience.
In essence Crabb is saying: sin is the problem, repentance
is the solution. Yet his account
of both is far deeper than we are accustomed to think.
Competent to Counsel
Adams begins by recounting his journey towards nouthetic
counselling. Adams’ introduction
speaks of early experiences of counselling. He had learnt little at seminary. He encountered problems in the pastorate for which he was
completely ill-equipped. Eventually he came across O. Hobart Mowrer
(secular psychiatrist) who confirmed what Adams had always thought – that
mental illness is not illness at all but that our treatment of the
mentally ill makes them victims and destroys personal
responsibility. This necessitates
a ‘Moral Model’ where responsibility is maintained (pxvii). Adams distances himself from Mowrer’s
psychology as one that begins and ends with man. Yet treating patients as culpable
moral agents is key for Adams.
The book seems to take the same journey – through a
disillusionment with secular models
to the rediscovery of the importance of moral responsibility.
‘The idea of sickness as the cause of
personal problems vitiates all notions of human responsibility.’
(p5)
Adams does not recognize the term mental illness. The problems faced by counselees are
personal problems which, between the physician (for organic problems) and
the Church (for everything else) can be solved. There is no reason why a person cannot and therefore should
not respond to moral obligations – and therefore to the admonitions of
the Scriptures.
According to the secular models ‘Disease comes from without and
serious illnesses must be cured from without – by another – the expert.’
(p7)
In opposing such models, Adams is keen to re-establish the
responsibility of the counselee and to wrest the practice of counselling
from the realm of the expert. All Christians have been equipped to
counsel. We have the Scriptures
and the Spirit.
On the Spirit, Adams says:
‘Counseling is the work of the Holy Spirit’
(p20)
Adams mentions three aspects to the Spirit’s work in chapter 2:
The Holy Spirit works through means – preaching, church, sacraments,
prayer; The Holy Spirit is sovereign; The Holy Spirit works by means of
His Word. Adams notes the dangers
of mentioning the Holy Spirit and, then, effectively relegating His work
to that of energizing our fleshly efforts.
‘Gifts, methodology and technique, of course,
may be abused; they may be set over against the Spirit and may be used to
replace His work. But they may
also be used in complete subjection to him to the glory of God and the
benefit of His children. Davison has well stated this point when he
rightly warns against the attempt to secure a spiritual end by the
adoption of habits, the multiplication of rules, and the observance of
external standards, excellent in themselves, but useful only as means
subordinate to the Spirit.’ (p24-25, italics mine)
Thus Adams raises the problem of the ‘means’
replacing the Spirit Himself – yet, in his book, he never solves it.
With the Spirit and the Scriptures, all Christians are therefore
competent to counsel (Rom 15:14).
In the chapter ‘ What is Wrong with the Mentally Ill?’,
Adams makes a bold but well-aimed attack on the notion of mental illness.
‘Organic malfunctions affecting the brain that
are caused by brain damage, tumors, gene inheritance, glandular or
chemical disorders, validly may be termed mental illnesses. But at the same time a vast number of
other human problems have been classified as mental illnesses for which
there is no evidence that they have been engendered by disease or illness
at all.’ (p28)
‘Apart
from organically generated difficulties, the ‘mentally ill’ are really
people with unresolved personal problems.’ (p28)
Thus, psychiatry has no
exclusive province that it may call its own.’ (p36). The pastor and the
physician may work together, but there is no room for the psychiatrist.
The answer is nouthetic counselling, from the Greek verb noutheteo – to confront. There are three aspects to nouthetic confrontations:
1)
There is a
problem to be solved;
‘The fundametal purpose of nouthetic confrontation,
then, is to effect personality and behavioural change.’ (45)
2)
There are
patterns of behaviour to be conformed to Scripture
‘[Nouthetic counselling] aims at straightening
out the individual by changing his patterns of behaviour to conform to biblical
standards.’ (p46); [footnoted] ‘Personality change in Scripture involves
confession, repentance and the development of new biblical patterns.’
How does this escape the charge of being
legalistic again? Simply by
saying ‘oh and we know that it’s the Spirit who’s empowering this’??
3)
Confrontation is
motivated by love for the counselee.
When defining this love, Adams gives us this:
‘A simple biblical definition of love is: The fulfilment of God’s
commandments… Thus the goal of nouthetic counselling is set forth plainly
in the Scriptures: to bring men into loving conformity to the law of
God.’(p55)
For the non-Christian this will mean, primarily, evangelism. For the Christian, nouthetic
counselling is, fundamentally, sanctification.
‘Nouthetic counselling in its fullest sense
then is simply an application of the means of sanctification…Concretely,
this means likeness to Christ, who perfectly imaged God as man. The attainment of that goal is achieved
as a client changes from his former sinful life patterns and grows into
the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).’
Nowhere does Adams mention the change that has
happened to the believer in Christ.
Instead the entire emphasis is on the change which we must effect.
The way we change is through our behaviour.
‘The real problem is not emotions, it is
behavioural… People feel bad because of bad behaviour; feelings flow from
actions.’ (p93)
This is a key argument for Adams, yet is based on very flimsy
evidence. Scripturally, he hangs
it on a contested translation of Genesis 4:7 ‘If you do right, will it
[understood as ‘your face’] not be lifted up?’ Scientifically he depends on the anatomy of the brain:
‘While there is no direct voluntary access to the emotions, the emotions
can be reached indirectly through the voluntary system, because
extensive fibre overlappings in the cortex allow unified correlation of
the two systems. Thus actions
affect emotions.’ (p97)
Of course this argument depends on the proposition that our
emotions cannot be direct objects of the will (a fact refuted plainly in
the Scriptures – Philippians 4:4; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Psalm 42:5;
Proverbs 3:5; 4:6; etc, etc). It also does not follow from the argument
about physiology. Even if there
were extensive overlappings in our brain cortex, this would only prove
that actions and emotions are linked – it says nothing about which part
affects which! Beyond these
arguments Adams has nothing to support what is a foundational claim for
his behaviouralist case.
We change our behaviour by repenting of bad habits and behaviours
and develop new biblical habits.
In order to effectively confront, the counsellor must be aware of
three dimensions of problems:
1)
Presentation
problems: e.g. ‘I’m
depressed.’
2)
Performance
problems: e.g. ‘I haven’t been
much of a wife.’
3)
Preconditioning
problems: e.g. ‘I avoid
responsibility when the going gets tough.’
Adams notes that our culture usually considers its problems in the
reverse order (i.e. my depression is a preconditioning problem meaning I
can’t be much of a wife and so fulfil my responsibilities). Yet, he says it is the other way
around.
Thus Adams’ attempt to ‘get at the underlying roots’ of a problem
(p149) may seem similar to Crabb’s iceberg, yet the underlying issues for
Adams are particular behavioural patterns. For Crabb the underlying issues are
idolatrous goals and strategies – issues deeper than
behaviour. In Adams, the
fundamental solutions are behavioural
ones.
Note that for Crabb, finding out where
counselees avoid responsibility is very important (Depression, 1986,
Metropolitan Tabernacle). Yet for
him there are motivating factors beneath this behaviour which must be
addressed or else behavioural change will simply be a white-washing of
our idolatrous tombs.
Adams continues the book by giving many helpful observations about
the practice of counselling and the place of loving confrontation in
Church and beyond. Yet, by now we
have a little data by which to draw some comparisons.
Crabb and Adams Compared
- How should
the Scriptures be used in establishing our counselling models?
Both Crabb and Adams are committed to inerrancy and sufficiency in
seeking to build a thoroughly biblical approach to counselling.
Having said this, it’s useful to note that both are comfortable
citing secular research findings and use arguments from common grace to
justify this. Both express
indebtedness to secular psychiatrists for aiding their thought. For Crabb he notes 3 benefits to
Freudian theory: ‘I think Freud was correct on at least three counts…
1)
we should look
beneath the surface (Jer 17:9; Matt 23:23-28)
2)
to deal properly
with people we must have a clear understanding of how human nature
functions on the inside, where it is not possible to observe directly: Proverbs 20:5 The purposes of a man's heart
are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.
3)
One necessary means of
understanding another’s dynamics is to understand your own (Matt 7:3-5).
For
Adams, who rejects not only Freud but also Carl Rogers (in toto!)
since he begins and ends with man, he does express warmth for the
influence of Mowrer. (!)
Yet I believe Crabb is right to highlight a shallowness in the
nouthetic approach when it comes to applying Scriptures to counselling
situations (see above under Crabb’s ‘position 2’).
Crabb gives a couple of examples where plain moral directives from
the Scriptures, when unaccompanied by deeper Scriptural truths, can do
more damage than good. One
example would be a cross dresser who comes for counselling. If he were nouthetically challenged by
Deut 22:5 and the moral injunction ‘don’t!’, he may well attempt to
abstain (yet all the while harbouring the question ‘why am I like this?’
– a question which is completely off the nouthetic radar screen). The
cross-dresser attempts to give it up, struggles massively and returns to
the nouthetic counsellor. He is
confronted by a second injunction:
1 Corinthians 10:13 – ‘you can!’
Yet Crabb notes, ‘The chains of sexual slavery are strong. Breaking them may require more than
holy determination.’ (p56) The
nouthetic approach leaves alone all questions about underlying patterns
of thinking and subterranean strategies for living. Addressing these is apparently
illegitimate because ‘no passage literally exegeted directly responds to
them.’ (p56)
Crabb continues with the example of a woman who panics at the mere
thought of sexual activity with her loving, patient and considerate
husband. She asks why? The question, by the standards of a
rigid account of Scriptural sufficiency, is thrown out as illegitimate…
The woman’s counsellor encourages her to ask another question, one which
a specific text does address: ‘Is it morally right to deprive my husband
of sexual relations?’ (1 Cor 7:5)… Fear of intimacy is not an authorized
reason for refusing sex… the sword of Scripture has been used less like a
surgeon’s healing scalpel than like an assassin’s dagger.’ (p56-57)
The issue, though, is not primarily to do with Adams’ account of
sufficiency. Rather, I believe it
is Adams’ targeting of behaviour which means that the bible is
used narrowly. For Adams the
bible is consulted to establish which law needs to be followed
rather than to proclaim our righteousness in Christ, or to ‘judge the
thoughts and attitudes of the heart.’ (Heb 4:12) For Adams, getting at
thoughts and attitudes is what behaviour is meant to do. The Scriptures tend to be used as law,
not gospel.
- What is at
the core of pastoral problems?
Both Crabb and Adams have a thoroughly Reformed account of our total
depravity before God. Thus both
could answer this question with one word: sin. To be more specific, Crabb might say ‘idolatry’ and Adams:
‘unbiblical living’.
When we probe a little deeper I think we find that actually the
more ‘touchy-feely’ Crabb is the one who has a more radical account of
our depravity. For Crabb, sins of
attitude and desire and our fundamental commitment to living
independently of God are confronted in a way which (ironically) the nouthetic
camp will often miss.
More than this, Crabb allows for the noetic effects of sin where
Adams minimizes them. While Crabb
maintains that our hearts are deceitful such that we, generally, are
unaware of the manner and magnitude or even the existence of the sins
causing us trouble,
Adams, claims that the great majority of people know exactly the sins
that are at issue. This is the danger of a system where
‘moral responsibility’ is the centre of gravity. Outwardly, it seems to take a very
hard line on sin, yet, at base, it actually credits humanity with too
much!
- How do people
change? And what should they
change into?
For Adams the answer to both is clear – empowered by the Spirit
and His means of grace the counselee changes by confessing sinful
behaviour, by forsaking unbiblical habits and forming biblical ones. Any problems ‘below the water line’ so
to speak will be addressed through this.
Adams’ goal is therefore clear – to live in conformity with the
revealed will of God in the Scriptures.
For Crabb, people change when the core motivation of their hearts
is redirected from sinful independence to vulnerable dependence on the
Lord. The ‘above the water line’
behaviour is thus addressed from the bottom up, or from the inside out. The goal is a counselee freed from
idols and self to serve God and others without manipulation or
self-protection.
Conclusion
In so short a space it has been difficult to avoid sweeping
generalisations and ‘sharp’ comments.
It would be unfair to paint Adams as ‘Law’ while Crabb is ‘Grace’.
Yet the behaviouralist thrust of Adams heads inexorably in that
direction. Crabb must be
preferred since his account of both our sin and God’s solution extends to
more biblical proportions.
Bibliography
Larry Crabb, Understanding People, Zondervan, 1987
Jay Adams, Competent to Counsel, Presbyterian and Reformed
Publishing Company, 1977
Gary Collins, Christian Counselling, Word, 1989
Larry Crabb, Depression, Metropolitan Tabernacle, 1986
Larry Crabb, Inside Out, NavPress, 1988
Larry Crabb, Finding God, Alpha, 1993
Howard Eyrich & William Hines, Curing the Heart,
Christian Focus, 2002
Donald MacLeod, Pastoral Counselling, UCCF, 1976
For a hotch-potch
summary of Crabb’s outlook, click here
Back to other papers
|
