The problem with psychology as practiced these days is that it has turned into Nazism. According to recent psychological theories, some people – narcissists and sociopaths – are bad and can only be bad whatever they do. This contradicts what we know about will and choice. Anything human is capable of choice; anything capable of choice can be good. Claiming that narcissists and sociopaths are bad and can only be bad is just like claiming that Jews and gypsies are born evil.
Christianity is much more reasonable on the subject. Christianity says that any sinner can be redeemed. In the same way as in previous times the psychology-minded indulged in sex and drugs, now they indulge in meanness and cruelty. They claim that sociopaths and narcissists are cruel; but they themselves commit much greater cruelties than anything owed to sociopaths and narcissists. The creed that they had accused of cruelty, they exceed in their cruelty. And there is nothing rational about it.
With the New Age we also see damnable things. Their claim is that everything that happens to people is a reflection of what’s in their consciousness. If that is true, then if I were to rape you and kill you it would be your fault rather than mine. I don’t reject this attitude, as I’ve been accused, because I want to avoid taking responsibility. I reject this attitude because it is morally wrong. My life has been quite a fortunate one, and this ideology stands to reward me. I reject it for ethical reasons even though it would work in my favour.
At church, a lady told me that some people should not become parents. People said that about me. At one time, when a woman wanted me on the Internet, someone said, “Do you want to do that to the gene pool?” I’ve been a loving and responsible father, and I’ve never been violent or abusive either to my daughter or to my wife. That was even though my wife was quite quarrelsome. As for the gene pool, my daughter has the best genetics. She is smart, she is beautiful and she is a sweetheart. If someone who’s been demonized as much as I have can do it, then so can anyone.
The baby boom generation has been accused of having a generational personality disorder. The two most glaringly narcissistic traits – cruelty and intolerance – are far more present in Generation X than they are in the baby boomers. The women raised in 1960s feminism were loose. The women raised in 1990s feminism were mean. I would pick loose over mean any day.
Some of these people, after they converted to Christianity, learned Christian compassion and Christian love. In my case I’ve had to change a lot about myself. For example I had to do away with arrogance and intolerance. That is because I had to change my mind completely about a lot of things in the light of new evidence; and if you have had to do that you become more compassionate to other people and more tolerant of people having other views.
According to personality psychology, making changes of this kind is impossible. Someone branded with a personality disorder is thought to be incapable of positive change. I am the proof that this is untrue. I went from someone whom most people saw as a bad person to someone whom most people see as a good one. I am the proof that personality psychology is wrong and that Christianity carries a much greater wisdom.
All sinners can be redeemed. This is likewise the case with narcissists and sociopaths. Give these people a functional moral structure, and they will behave rightfully whatever is wrong with their brain.