Quotation by R.S. Lee

It is sometimes said that Christianity has always had its own form of psychoanalysis in the practice of confession.... It is true that a skilled confessor will compel the penitent to examine his mind more carefully and honestly than he has been doing, but he still works only on the conscious level. The psychoanalyst, on the other hand, tries to pierce through the conscious level to penetrate and expose the unconscious, and he works chiefly there. He does not call on the patient's willpower, but endeavors to get him to relax, making much more use of the patient's imagination. Further, he is not concerned with passing moral judgments on his patient's behavior or, at any rate directly, with strengthening him morally.... He tries to clear away the rubbish that is choking the spring of life and is not concerned with what happens to the stream when he has restored the flow. The confessor on the other hand is pre-occupied with directing the flow into the right channels.