The Protestant Ethic against the Spirit of Psychiatry: The Other Side of Weber's Thesis

Abstract

This paper will attempt to preserlt an encounter between the peoplechanging sciences and the Protestant Ethic. For purposes of convenience the term psychotherapy will be used in its broadest sense to refer to all professional treatment systems aimed at changing people. It will be suggested that, whereas the Protestant Ethic appears to have contributed largely to the enhancement of the scientific, rational approach to psychopathology and to the methods for its alteration, the underlying beliefsof Protestantism and of people-changing systems seem inherently contradictory. More specifically, it will be proposed that to the extent that the Protestant Ethic had a general impact on the Western worldin terms of economic and scientific development the belief in man's inability to change should be equally rooted in Western culture, since dissemination of both is traceable to Calvin's influential doctrine of predestination. Before elaborating on this proposition, I would ask the reader to accompany me on a short historical excursion.