Notes on Augustine's "Confessions"

Abstract

There are many places in the Confessions where Augustine's talents as a psychologist emerge, e.g., his discussion of the acquisition of language (I-8), and of the curative power of catharsis or griefwork (IX-12). We shall confine our discussion here to Augustine as phenomeniologist of conflict and decision, and use his insights as a springboard for exploring the relation between the psychological and the theological perspectives. Augustine's account of the last step of his conversion-his renunciation of his mistresses is a mine of psychological understanding. Included are descriptions of the inner suffering, the fear and shame, the temporizing, the heightening of tension, the tenaciousness of the habitual and familiar, and even a suggestion of the power of the unconscious. He described vividly the avoidance of facing conflict which we call temporizing: I, convicted by the truth, had nothing at all to answer, but only those dull and drowsy words, 'Anon, anon,' 'presently,' 'leave me but a little.' 'But presently, presently' had no present, and my 'little while' went on for a long while .. Even if we allow for rhetoric and his didactic intentions, his descriptions of the inner torment of conflict and indecision are classic: Thus was I gnawed within, and exceedingly confounded with an horrible shame.... What said I not against myself with what scourges of condemnation lashed I not my soul, that it might follow me, striving to go after Thee. Augustine delineates precisely the inner experience of heightening of ambivalence and tension: . the very moment wherein I was to become other than I was, the nearer it approached me, the greater horror did it strike into me; yet did it not strike me back, nor turned me away, but held me in suspense. His personifying of sexual desire in the voices of his mistresses, and of their almost overpowering appeal at the moment of permanent renunciation is convincing: Does thou cast us off? and from that moment shall we be no more with thee for and from that moment shall not this or that be lawful for thee for ever? His understanding of the partly unconscious character of the hold of sexual pleasure over him is suggested in the following lines: And now I much less than half heard them, and not openly shewing themselves and contradicting me, but muttering as it were behind my back, and privily plucking me... Augustine reports agonizing inner arguments with himself. He tried to shame himself into submitting by holding before him the example of young celibate Christians: Canst not thou what these youths, what these maidens can ? The psychologist's perspective on this episode differs from the theological one. The psychologist would view the rich phenomenological description as data for suggesting, explicating or testing various paradigms of conflict and its resolution. Augustine's experience is used by William James, for instance, as an almost perfect description of his key cagtegory