I was saddened by the news of the abuse Visarion accused Alex of. I don’t know him personally, only from his texts and television appearances. He always gave me the impression of a priest who feels his own suffering and the pain of others, who can speak animatedly without being wooden, and who takes a healthy distance from the all-too-often-encountered Fortress-besieged rhetoric. in the Church Therefore, when there are few of them, their fall is all the more unfortunate.

But this isn’t the Alex Visarion I want to talk about. But as to the point, how is it possible that those who are called to help should fall? And, if possible, how can it be prevented?

In the 1970s, Jungian analyst Adolph Guggenbuhl-Craig wrote: “The risks of power in the helping professions. For psychologists, doctors, social workers, teachers and priests.” The author started from the desire to show “why in the process of helping those who are in an unfortunate situation, those who are suffering, or those who can no longer find their way, there is also a loss. Damage caused by the very intention of those who help.”

The book quickly became important precisely because these works deal with interpersonal dynamics in which a power complex is present. The assistant can easily put or be easily put by others in a position of power. And where this power is not realized, accepted as much as it should and when it should, it tends to manifest itself in the most undesirable and destructive ways.

In the world of psychoanalysis, “transference” and “countertransference” are two fundamental concepts. Simply put, “transfer” is understood as a mental phenomenon of the reproduction of certain fantasies, usually infantile, transferred from the person who was supposed to receive them to the person of the psychotherapist. In other words, what we could not feel and show to one of our parents, we feel now, without offering, that is, unconsciously, to the personality of the psychotherapist with whom we work. Transference is the imposition of previous experience on the present person. This happens not only in the psychotherapist’s office, but in any life situation associated with an important person or significant experience. And countertransference is what the therapist feels for his patient, starting from the interaction between them and going through his own unconscious, that is, unresolved personal problems.

At the dawn of psychoanalysis, many therapists, including prominent ones, fell into the trap of erotic transference. However, precisely for this reason, and because the consequences of this fall were extremely devastating to the victims, the phenomenon has been very carefully considered. Nowadays, serious psychotherapeutic training approaches the topic thoroughly. There are open discussions, practical exercises that emphasize how the therapist should manage an erotic transference situation, notes and readings on the topic. And yet, unfortunately for the people they work with, we sometimes hear about a therapist gone wrong. And therefore, after starting practice for at least 4 years, psychotherapists are required to attend a supervision session once a week. In them, they are taught to pay attention to even the slightest drowsiness that may occur during a session, not to mention the sexual tension that the therapist may feel towards the patient.

What does the Church do about it? How do theological faculties prepare future clergymen? How many spiritual practical courses do students of theological faculties attend? What will they learn? in meetings in the Secret Confession – what, that is, the rules that he must follow in interaction with the one he confesses? The sad answer is that there are too few. Perhaps a notable exception is the academic and didactic activities of Father Teofil Tia, Dean of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Cluj-Napoca, especially the efforts he made in the master’s program in pastoral counseling and psychosocial care. Simply, something similar would be needed at any Orthodox theological faculty that prepares future spiritual priests.

There are also spiritual fathers in the Orthodox Church who are doing a wonderful job. But he has them especially because they are people with a special soul, because they have been enlightened by God, because they have worked intensively with themselves and are still working to achieve their own healing.

According to the Holy Fathers, the Church has a threefold mission: cleansing, that is, healing, healing; illumination, i.e. providing internal meaning and opening external horizons; and divine. However, the Romanian Orthodox Church seems to be sending its priests out into the world without providing them with sufficient therapeutic and pastoral training and without giving them through ongoing formation the kind of support that could constantly moisten their skills. The servants of the Church are endowed with the awe-inspiring power to approach the soul of another and alleviate his suffering. But unfortunately, this leaves them all too open to the temptations that come with that power – how to use that power, how to get it, what are its limits, what are the frameworks that govern its use.

We must also question the effectiveness of the ethical bodies that exist in the Orthodox Church, since they are the ones who deal with the abuses of power that we have talked about. Information appeared in the media about one more person who was bullied by Visarion Alexa. She would file a “complaint to the church.” Was there such a complaint, and if so, what did the “Church Inspection Authority” of the Archdiocese of Bucharest do about it? How many such cases does the respective corps handle each year? Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro