Theology Today - Vol 53, No. 1 - April 1996 - BOOK REVIEW - Critical Caring: A Feminist Model for Pastoral Psychology

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Critical Caring: A Feminist Model for Pastoral Psychology
By Valerie M. DeMarinis

Louisville, Westminster/John Knox, 1993. 159 pp. $22.00.

Reading Valerie DeMarinis' book, Critical Caring, is like opening a treasure chest that is divided into two major parts. Upon reading the first part, one is dazzled by the colorful variety and density of gems-the theological and psychological insights that lay the hermeneutical foundation for her feminist model of pastoral psychology. Part two of the book applies theory to four case studies chosen to illustrate the clinical use of the model in working with women across different ages, cultures, and lifecycle developmental challenges. After reading the case studies, one sees the theoretical gems of part one sorted by six different colors arranged in a circular pattern, each color representing a crucial step in this model of critical caring. With DeMarinis as guide, the reader is led to become a "responsible scavenger"-one who is capable of searching, collecting, extracting, and discerning the nature and quality of the disparate kinds of knowledge so as to transform them into wisdom for one's life and pastoral ministry. The various maps or diagrams scattered throughout the book greatly facilitate responsible scavenging and, as such, are invaluable to the reader.

Pastoral psychology encompasses the subfields of pastoral care, pastoral counseling, and pastoral psychotherapy. Because each of these subfields has a different context for caring, the function and types of caring appropriate for each subfield vary in length and intensity. Nevertheless, DeMarinis contends that "the foundational theological approach and the theory of care are the same in all three contexts." It is essential, therefore, to understand the nature and task of caring and its relation to the nature and function of religious and spiritual beliefs and symbols.

In developing the hermeneutics of critical caring, DeMarinis creatively appropriates feminist philosophical, theological, and psychosocial theories to lay the foundation of her model. This reader found DeMarinis' discussion of the four pastoral functions of healing, guiding, sustaining, and reconciling in the light of critical caring to be very illuminating. Even more brilliant is the way in which DeMarinis' model combines these pastoral functions with Schüssler Fiorenza's five biblical-hermeneutical principles: suspicion, critical evaluation, interpretation through proclamation, remembrance through historical reconstruction, and interpretation through ritual. In so doing DeMarinis reclaims the constructive use of religious symbol and ritual for healing and forges new ground for pastoral theology and psychology both in theory and practice.

The clinical model of critical caring moves through six distinct but interconnecting episodes or overall patterns. Each pattern of movement progresses in complexity and intensity. Each person moves through the

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"six-episode cycle" at different rates and with different rhythms according to the needs of the person. The six episodes are described as follows: (1) creation of a safe therapeutic space, (2) entry into symbolic reality, (3) identifying central strategies and rituals of symbolic reality, (4) assessing the impact of strategies and rituals on the caring process, (5) bringing strategies and rituals into the therapeutic process and discovering ways for containing, and (6) developing means for creating new memory, new ritual.

When ~~meeting with a prospective "client," DeMarinis describes her model-her way of working-to the person. She invites the person to become a responsible scavenger of her or his own life-to assess those myths, symbols, rituals, and strategies of the past and present in order to "decide which symbols and myths will interpret faith and hold hope for the future." This is difficult work as one confronts the negative dimensions of her or his religious beliefs or theological inheritance in the process of sorting, salvaging, purifying, and transforming those myths and symbols. In the pastoral framework, the faith-community context needs to be recognized and included in critical caring as the person's religious system and faith symbols are located in a community of meaning making. It is often important to include significant persons from this faith community in the therapeutic work. The model, therefore, emphasizes empowerment and relationship. The person must do the work for herself or himself, inside relationship, not by herself or himself, outside relationship. The therapist is a partner in the scavenging process and, so, is challenged to sort through his or her own beliefs, values, and symbols that may impede the process of critically caring.

Having applied this model in my own clinical work, I have found that it works. I agree with DeMarinis that the most difficult task is to help persons obtain a constructive perspective in the present through symbol and ritual with which to engage "dangerous memories" and to explore deadly ritual patterns in None's past. Otherwise, the person is likely to be caught in the past and will reenact its drama emotionally. DeMarinis does not directly delineate how one develops this skill.

The best~~ clue, however, comes from the very way in which her book itself evolved. Beginning with her therapeutic experiences and challenges from such, DeMarinis made extensive clinical notes and posed questions about them. She began to see patterns at work, which she developed into a working model. For fifteen years, she struggled to name and articulate more precisely the philosophical and theological foundations undergirding her model. Throughout this process, she continually brought this model back into her therapeutic encounters for clarification and refinement. Critically reflecting on one's experiences of caring leads to being able to discern what is at work and what works to nurture and sustain life. One word of caution, however, is imperative. The theoretical concepts or resources that one uses to reflect critically upon caring make all the difference. Without examining the consequences of our theoretical foundations (theological, philosophical, and psychosocial), we will not discern unhealthy, oppressive consequences from healthy, life-giving conse-

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quences of caring. Sure to become a recognized leader in the field of pastoral psychology, Valerie DeMarinis has given us a hermeneutical method and clinical model by which we can become responsible scavengers in the process of critical caring.

MARTHA A. ROBBINS
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA