Welcome to our first devotional response of this course. This week we look at very controversial concepts presented by Sigmund Freud and other psychoanalytic theorists. Some of Freud’s concepts do have validity today, including what he called “defense mechanisms.” Here is a Bible example. This one has its beginnings immediately after the fall of humanity, recorded in Genesis 3. Freud would call this “rationalization.” Listen to how it plays out in the Scripture:
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The concept of rationalization basically says, “It is not my fault.” A student might blame the teacher for failing a test because the teacher is “too hard.” Or a child might blame a sibling or classmate for misbehavior because “they dared me to do it.” We use rationalization in the same way that Adam and Eve used it: to avoid taking responsibility for things we have done.
Consider this:
- What is your response to this passage?
- Can you give another biblical example of the use of rationalization and the consequences of doing so?
- What is an example of a time when you or another used rationalization to avoid taking responsibility for a behavior? What were the consequences for you or the other person?
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