To be clear, sin isn’t limited to our illicit escapes or moral failures. Some of the most devastating sins are those committed against us — abuse, neglect, and the many forms of trauma that sear the soul and leave behind a wake of spiritual wreckage. These are not merely psychological scars; they are often diabolically inflicted wounds — frequently targeting the innocent — that transplant incendiary demons from the corruptor to the corrupted. Like a spiritual virus, this transference can consume the infiltrated host and lead to the continuation of such evil legacies.
What I call the Sinscape — including victimization by preternatural affliction — requires its own sober reckoning. To follow.
Don’t be a fanatic ideologue. Spiritual maladies are sometimes mixed with mental illness, sometimes not. And vice versa. Mental illness is not just another liberal term for spiritual malady. This is moronic and fanatical.
Dr Kozinski is resisting the remedy for his own dysfunctional projection, notable in his persistent trolling of fellow Catholics, see his comment in this YouTube video:
Hi Mark, I read your recent article on Jordan Peterson, which is very good btw. I clicked the link and listened to most of the podcast, and although also very interesting, is it possible you sent me the wrong link by mistake?
You must be confusing me with another Mark, I have written nothing on Petersen. The link takes you to a video in which Kozinski trolls fellow Catholics in the comments. He is rather tragically well known for doing so, haunting the comboxes of those he detests, flinging hellfire condemnations as he goes. Projection is how I would describe his problem. He is far from the peace of soul you describe in your excellent article.
Trads who reject Vatican II and the Novus order and hate Saints like JPII and St Faustina are schismatic and hence not members of the Church. Tucker is a schismatic Pharisee. They are not “fellow Catholics”
Those at the extreme end of their tether are demonically infested/overtaken by what Scripture calls 'Legion' -- a great number of demons. Few possess the faith in our day to deal with such bulk possessions, as Jesus did. But I believe that day is coming.
Mark 5:1–13 (RSV-CE):
1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.
2 And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
3 who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain...
(verses 4–7 describe his torment and Jesus' approach)
9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”
10 And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country.
11 Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside;
12 and they begged him, “Send us to the swine, let us enter them.”
13 So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
I think this is often true, but at least 80-90% of those who present for care have been traumatized, abused, neglected, violated in childhood or adolescence or have had erratic care in infancy or childhood that causes attachment (bonding) problems in relationships.
In these cases, you could say it was not their spiritual illness or sin that caused the problem, but it was somehow passed to them...in fact, they are dealing with the consequences of the failures or sins of those who were to care for them or raise them.
I think that spiritual or trauma/attachment problems account for most problems. Of course, medication is not an adequate response to a spiritual or soul wound. In fact, it is the material answer demanded by our current society. Sadly.
Freud initiated us into a "therapeutic culture" as so supremely articulated by Philip Rieff. He was a major part of desacralizing the world, a process begun in the Protestant Revolt. The result: relativism, atheism, nihilism.
You are absolutely right Rae! I didn’t feelI I could do more on this one but to lay the basic ground work. I removed a footnote to other contributors before publishing, which I will put back in. There are 5 channels of sin in fact that can work against us with varying influence. Trauma and abuse belonging to the second channel ‘Trespasses against us.’
So was Jeremiah and Jonah and Job, and St. Francis and many heroes of the faith. But if you'll permit a distinction, there is a difference between demonic oppression in the lives of those caught in their sins vs the strain suffered by those pursuing holy lives. Even when our personal sins are redeemed, the turbulence of Original Sin remains. This is not heaven, after all. To be clear, the depression you speak of in the lives of the saints isn't separation from God because of sin-debt, but rather God removing Himself some distance to purify the believer. Christ Himself on the Cross cried out to His Father, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' — Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34
There is a marked difference between the two. Finally, every life folded into Christ from the outer darkness benefits immensely from the graces and miracles of Salvation. There is much more here than meets the eye. Thank you for your comment.
Thank you for this. It is refreshing to read a fellow Catholic that is willing to confront the reality of sin without knee-jerk concessions to polite (materialist) society. And even if one does not accept your maximalist argument (I think that most are simply conditioned to dismiss it out of hand instead of trying to grapple with it in good faith), the concept of Sinscape is quite compelling. We indeed have to be ready to understand sin as more than moral failure : the seed of evil, of everything that is wrong in the world. The problem for most seems to be that they will not take the Creation story seriously, and thus will be blind to the cosmic aspect of sin. It is hard for us Moderns to realize how much we have been led astray, nay blindsided by our materialist assumptions, biases and dogmas. In any case, I am very much looking forward to your next contributions.
Thank you Jean-Michel. I follow you and am humbled and enriched by your comments. Interestingly, I was warned by a popular Catholic not to publish it. I would rather suffer the slings and arrows as a ‘Maximalist’ than putter along to warm guitar refrains with my head down. All the Best, M.
A masterful , and brilliant account that takes an axe to the roots of a global hydra . The myth of mental illness.
You may know of the likes of Ivan Illich and Thomas Szasz who made the secular ,vaguely spiritual attempts to overturn the fashionable " black art of psychiatry" that was fast emerging from post war gulags, Soviet and Nazi " hospitals" and psychiatric wards via Staat Diktat.
Your pithy takes on the global mad myth of MI are right on the nose, and you deserve great credit.
My path is similar to yours, but my dramatic metanoia moment put me in the Protestant Prophetic Camp , as opposed to my Irish Catholic home of old.
But we work now for the same boss. Maybe your job is to fill the churches once more as a shepherd, mine is to empty them and reintroduce them into the wild ,where they may yet freely return to disciple the churches ,so they will provide sanctuary and strategy for the coming warming wars that are clearly coming.
Yes, spirituality is certainly helpful. No, spirituality will not cure severe illness. I have worked with people with severe mental illness, I have my masters in both psychology and spirituality. The answer is more to the middle. Although I appreciate your experience, it is not the answer. The answer lies in a combination of sites and spiritual.
I agree with you and am glad to have read your explanation. Recently, I found this book “PsychoHeresy: The Psychological Seduction of the Church” particularly helpful by Martin and Deidre Bobgan (https://a.co/d/9e8f4Jr). They go through the godless foundations of the field of psychology and its abject failures. Also, at the end and more in depth elsewhere, they explain how the entire psychotherapy and even Biblical counseling movement as it stands today are problem-centered and not Christ-centered as Bible ministry should be.
Thank you for reading, Belte, and your valuable comment.
Exactly that. All of it.
But the roots are Satanic, and not simply godless. Promoting a climate of abject sin relentlessly and then submerging those who fall off the cliff (PsychoHeresy) into the cellar of soul capture and chemical bondage is the devil’s ultimate sleight of hand. And, yes, the churches go right along with it as has virtually everyone else.
I’m glad we can have this conversation and share the truth. It’s a start 🔥
Yes, you’re right! Satan is behind this deception as he was from the very beginning. I’ve seen people who earnestly went to talk therapy and became much much worse. They felt trapped and went down the medical/diagnosis route (that always seem to escalate). Then, once they became believers, they have transformed new life in Jesus just as He promises to those who believe.
However, it has been startling to me how blind many of the church leaders are to this spiritual danger. It almost seems too hot for them to handle. Nevertheless, it should not be that there is one broad domain for psychology and one narrow field for religion. All must be covered by Christ and the Church (Col 3:11). We should not cede this ground in the holy spiritual warfare we face (Eph 6:12).
I think you are conflating things. I agree that for your type of case where there are clear sins either committed or committed against you the model of mental illness is not an appropriate model, and Sin is truer. But there are cases that are substantially more physiological. If you want to call MI an interface between body and soul, that is acceptable, but there are definitely aspects that can be handled on a purely natural level, where no one sins.
Agreed. I have seen far too many people, however, who took that to mean that their problems are purely spiritual, and then lost their faith because using spiritual means alone did not solve the problem.
I'm muslim, but you phrased my suspicions around the psychotherapy industry pretty well. One symptom about the prevalence of 'mental illness' in younger generations is the excessive use of social media. when you're preoccupied with your faith, the manic materialism encouraged on these platforms becomes glaringly obvious & you're able to resist its temptation better. There's plenty of research about how social media induces ADHD-like symptoms & causes depression or anxiety.
Also I recommend you read The Myth of Mentall Illness by Thomas Szasz. It may be a slightly outdated book nowadays but it offers a much needed alternative look into mental health.
Another recommendation is the youtube video 'Is Therapy Under Capitalism Just Systemised Gaslighting?' https://youtu.be/xb4jVxoaXtU
I believe my new article ‘ Personal Apocalypse’ can help us better understand the sustained attack of ‘the culture’ on the undiscerning mind and the undefended soul.
Just added:
Footnote 25
To be clear, sin isn’t limited to our illicit escapes or moral failures. Some of the most devastating sins are those committed against us — abuse, neglect, and the many forms of trauma that sear the soul and leave behind a wake of spiritual wreckage. These are not merely psychological scars; they are often diabolically inflicted wounds — frequently targeting the innocent — that transplant incendiary demons from the corruptor to the corrupted. Like a spiritual virus, this transference can consume the infiltrated host and lead to the continuation of such evil legacies.
What I call the Sinscape — including victimization by preternatural affliction — requires its own sober reckoning. To follow.
Excellent response. Looking forward to the followup essay.
Don’t be a fanatic ideologue. Spiritual maladies are sometimes mixed with mental illness, sometimes not. And vice versa. Mental illness is not just another liberal term for spiritual malady. This is moronic and fanatical.
Nobody is born mentally ill.
It happens.
Why?
We actually know the reasons it happens, and guess what? They aren't because of “sin" or “tethers" or any other bronze age nonsense.
Dr Kozinski is resisting the remedy for his own dysfunctional projection, notable in his persistent trolling of fellow Catholics, see his comment in this YouTube video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0WKl179BJLM
Hi Mark, I read your recent article on Jordan Peterson, which is very good btw. I clicked the link and listened to most of the podcast, and although also very interesting, is it possible you sent me the wrong link by mistake?
You must be confusing me with another Mark, I have written nothing on Petersen. The link takes you to a video in which Kozinski trolls fellow Catholics in the comments. He is rather tragically well known for doing so, haunting the comboxes of those he detests, flinging hellfire condemnations as he goes. Projection is how I would describe his problem. He is far from the peace of soul you describe in your excellent article.
Oh, sorry for that. I’ll be sure to watch out for him. Thanks for reading 🔥
Trads who reject Vatican II and the Novus order and hate Saints like JPII and St Faustina are schismatic and hence not members of the Church. Tucker is a schismatic Pharisee. They are not “fellow Catholics”
You are possessed of a very strange spirit Dr Kozinski.
Yeah, it’s called the Holy Spirit
Quoth the crypto-Calvinist.
Those at the extreme end of their tether are demonically infested/overtaken by what Scripture calls 'Legion' -- a great number of demons. Few possess the faith in our day to deal with such bulk possessions, as Jesus did. But I believe that day is coming.
Mark 5:1–13 (RSV-CE):
1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.
2 And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
3 who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain...
(verses 4–7 describe his torment and Jesus' approach)
9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”
10 And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country.
11 Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside;
12 and they begged him, “Send us to the swine, let us enter them.”
13 So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
I think this is often true, but at least 80-90% of those who present for care have been traumatized, abused, neglected, violated in childhood or adolescence or have had erratic care in infancy or childhood that causes attachment (bonding) problems in relationships.
In these cases, you could say it was not their spiritual illness or sin that caused the problem, but it was somehow passed to them...in fact, they are dealing with the consequences of the failures or sins of those who were to care for them or raise them.
I think that spiritual or trauma/attachment problems account for most problems. Of course, medication is not an adequate response to a spiritual or soul wound. In fact, it is the material answer demanded by our current society. Sadly.
Freud initiated us into a "therapeutic culture" as so supremely articulated by Philip Rieff. He was a major part of desacralizing the world, a process begun in the Protestant Revolt. The result: relativism, atheism, nihilism.
Only Christ can save us.
Great essay. God bless you.
You are absolutely right Rae! I didn’t feelI I could do more on this one but to lay the basic ground work. I removed a footnote to other contributors before publishing, which I will put back in. There are 5 channels of sin in fact that can work against us with varying influence. Trauma and abuse belonging to the second channel ‘Trespasses against us.’
Thank you for your comment.
Have you written about the 5 channels? Where could I read more on those?
It’s coming next, I think. Just starting to put things in order.
So was Jeremiah and Jonah and Job, and St. Francis and many heroes of the faith. But if you'll permit a distinction, there is a difference between demonic oppression in the lives of those caught in their sins vs the strain suffered by those pursuing holy lives. Even when our personal sins are redeemed, the turbulence of Original Sin remains. This is not heaven, after all. To be clear, the depression you speak of in the lives of the saints isn't separation from God because of sin-debt, but rather God removing Himself some distance to purify the believer. Christ Himself on the Cross cried out to His Father, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' — Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34
There is a marked difference between the two. Finally, every life folded into Christ from the outer darkness benefits immensely from the graces and miracles of Salvation. There is much more here than meets the eye. Thank you for your comment.
Thank you for this. It is refreshing to read a fellow Catholic that is willing to confront the reality of sin without knee-jerk concessions to polite (materialist) society. And even if one does not accept your maximalist argument (I think that most are simply conditioned to dismiss it out of hand instead of trying to grapple with it in good faith), the concept of Sinscape is quite compelling. We indeed have to be ready to understand sin as more than moral failure : the seed of evil, of everything that is wrong in the world. The problem for most seems to be that they will not take the Creation story seriously, and thus will be blind to the cosmic aspect of sin. It is hard for us Moderns to realize how much we have been led astray, nay blindsided by our materialist assumptions, biases and dogmas. In any case, I am very much looking forward to your next contributions.
Thank you Jean-Michel. I follow you and am humbled and enriched by your comments. Interestingly, I was warned by a popular Catholic not to publish it. I would rather suffer the slings and arrows as a ‘Maximalist’ than putter along to warm guitar refrains with my head down. All the Best, M.
This is so brave. Thank you! I agree wholeheartedly in your thesis as a revert to Catholicism peace and clarity is found in our mother church.
Hi Rebecca, thank you so much for your comment ☀️
The idea of avowed atheists dictating how we think about and treat MI is an affront to Creation and Salvation.
As a devout Catholic healed and saved by grace, I can’t accept that.
My prayer is to light a fire that will help others stumbling in the dark find their way home, as I did.
Please, if you can, keep me in your prayers.
Blessings.
You're right, I should kill myself and burn in hell because I am a fundamentally broken person. Thank you for the advice.
That’s your takeaway? I guess by that you mean Christ is out of the question? Fundamentally broken? Darling we all are. I wish you well.
A masterful , and brilliant account that takes an axe to the roots of a global hydra . The myth of mental illness.
You may know of the likes of Ivan Illich and Thomas Szasz who made the secular ,vaguely spiritual attempts to overturn the fashionable " black art of psychiatry" that was fast emerging from post war gulags, Soviet and Nazi " hospitals" and psychiatric wards via Staat Diktat.
Your pithy takes on the global mad myth of MI are right on the nose, and you deserve great credit.
My path is similar to yours, but my dramatic metanoia moment put me in the Protestant Prophetic Camp , as opposed to my Irish Catholic home of old.
But we work now for the same boss. Maybe your job is to fill the churches once more as a shepherd, mine is to empty them and reintroduce them into the wild ,where they may yet freely return to disciple the churches ,so they will provide sanctuary and strategy for the coming warming wars that are clearly coming.
Brilliant writing sir !
Yes, spirituality is certainly helpful. No, spirituality will not cure severe illness. I have worked with people with severe mental illness, I have my masters in both psychology and spirituality. The answer is more to the middle. Although I appreciate your experience, it is not the answer. The answer lies in a combination of sites and spiritual.
Sorry, combination of spirituality,psychology and in some cases psychiatry.
I agree with you and am glad to have read your explanation. Recently, I found this book “PsychoHeresy: The Psychological Seduction of the Church” particularly helpful by Martin and Deidre Bobgan (https://a.co/d/9e8f4Jr). They go through the godless foundations of the field of psychology and its abject failures. Also, at the end and more in depth elsewhere, they explain how the entire psychotherapy and even Biblical counseling movement as it stands today are problem-centered and not Christ-centered as Bible ministry should be.
Thank you for reading, Belte, and your valuable comment.
Exactly that. All of it.
But the roots are Satanic, and not simply godless. Promoting a climate of abject sin relentlessly and then submerging those who fall off the cliff (PsychoHeresy) into the cellar of soul capture and chemical bondage is the devil’s ultimate sleight of hand. And, yes, the churches go right along with it as has virtually everyone else.
I’m glad we can have this conversation and share the truth. It’s a start 🔥
Yes, you’re right! Satan is behind this deception as he was from the very beginning. I’ve seen people who earnestly went to talk therapy and became much much worse. They felt trapped and went down the medical/diagnosis route (that always seem to escalate). Then, once they became believers, they have transformed new life in Jesus just as He promises to those who believe.
However, it has been startling to me how blind many of the church leaders are to this spiritual danger. It almost seems too hot for them to handle. Nevertheless, it should not be that there is one broad domain for psychology and one narrow field for religion. All must be covered by Christ and the Church (Col 3:11). We should not cede this ground in the holy spiritual warfare we face (Eph 6:12).
Excellent commentary. I agree totally 💯
I think you are conflating things. I agree that for your type of case where there are clear sins either committed or committed against you the model of mental illness is not an appropriate model, and Sin is truer. But there are cases that are substantially more physiological. If you want to call MI an interface between body and soul, that is acceptable, but there are definitely aspects that can be handled on a purely natural level, where no one sins.
The problem begins with Original sin. We all have it. Unlike other sins, Original sin is not elective.
Agreed. I have seen far too many people, however, who took that to mean that their problems are purely spiritual, and then lost their faith because using spiritual means alone did not solve the problem.
I deeply enjoyed this, thank you
Hi Sunlight. Thank you for reading and your reply. God is good ☀️
I agree with everything you said.
It’s such an unexpected to joy to hear from readers who share their agreement on such a contentious subject. Thank you for responding, Mirabel.
I'm muslim, but you phrased my suspicions around the psychotherapy industry pretty well. One symptom about the prevalence of 'mental illness' in younger generations is the excessive use of social media. when you're preoccupied with your faith, the manic materialism encouraged on these platforms becomes glaringly obvious & you're able to resist its temptation better. There's plenty of research about how social media induces ADHD-like symptoms & causes depression or anxiety.
Also I recommend you read The Myth of Mentall Illness by Thomas Szasz. It may be a slightly outdated book nowadays but it offers a much needed alternative look into mental health.
Another recommendation is the youtube video 'Is Therapy Under Capitalism Just Systemised Gaslighting?' https://youtu.be/xb4jVxoaXtU
I believe my new article ‘ Personal Apocalypse’ can help us better understand the sustained attack of ‘the culture’ on the undiscerning mind and the undefended soul.
looking forward to it
👏👏👏
Thanks Jason.