| This paper investigates Jesus as a psychotherapist by analyzing his personal life and records of healing in the Gospels-Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The results are as follows：
1) It seems that many of the diseases or symptoms healed were mental disorders or symptoms, such as conversion(mainly), psychophysiologic disorders, somatization, and psychoses.
2) It seems that the main psychotherapeutic factors were suggestion and empathy. In addition, other supportive psychotherapeutic factors, such as support, reassurance, and advice, and in some cases, expressive psychotherapeutic factors such as interpretation, conflict resolution, and insight, might have been involved in Jesus’s healing.
3) It seems that Jesus had nearly all the characteristics of a good psychotherapist, including empathy, self awareness, self-confidence, general knowledge, sensitivity, flexibility, and health.
4) It seems that the above characteristics of Jesus were related to two mystic experiences-the baptism of Jesus and the devil’s temptation of Jesus in the desert.
According to the above results, Jesus might can be regarded as one of the great psychotherapists of all time. |
