Welcome to the first blog post of the Bible Psychiatrist! It is truly a joy to openly share a project which has been a labor of love over the last twenty years or so. My hope is that readers will be inspired to join me on a journey of discovery into an ancient resource that millions of others have used over the centuries; a journey in search of comfort, healing and guidance. This journey, expressed in these posts and as a companion to the forthcoming book “The Bible Psychiatrist” delves into biblical scripture from the standpoint of a psychiatrist with over 30 years of clinical experience. I realize the “bible-psychiatry” angle may seem odd our unusual, especially given that modern psychiatry has largely transformed itself into the practice of using medication to solve mental and emotional problems, a practice which is largely divorced from spiritual understanding. Even the modern roots of psychiatry in psychotherapy seem to have been largely left behind. Fortunately, had substantial “talk therapy” training in my own psychiatric residency from 1985 to 1989 and am grateful on a daily basis for this background..

About twenty years ago, when I started to explore scripture for personal reasons, I discovered, to my surprise and delight, numerous passages that had obvious relevance to both mental health and to the practice of psychiatry. This led a regular habit on my part of regular reading of scripture which in turn led to more and more connections between mental and emotional health and spiritual understanding as elucidated in the Bible. Due to a busy professional practice and home life, the book version of the Bible Psychiatrist has had lots of starts and stops. When I began to move into a part time practice (OK, semi-retirement), I thought it was high time to jump start this project! And because this is the age of online communication, I hope that readers will be inspired to either start or expand their own journey of discovery into Bible-based healing, comfort and guidance. What better way to do so than to start a blog that can engage partners on this journey? I am confident that some of you will have inspiring stories to share which can be shared with others and possibly incorporated into the book. This blog is starting January 1, 2023 and I have set a goal to have the book ready by September 1, 2023. I am confident that the input and experience of readers will enrich and facilitate this process.

I’d like to begin by sharing a practical, easy to use strategy for reading and reflecting on Biblical passages. But first, I feel the need to make these introductory comments:
I realize that attitudes toward the Bible vary widely: e.g. many religious people regard the Bible not only as a practical guide for living but also as a final authority, the revealed Word of God. Others see it as a collection of inspired writings based on human spiritual experience and others emphasize historical aspects. Others regard the Bible with skepticism and perhaps suspicion or even contempt. My hope is to share a perspective on the Bible which will be of value to anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs or even the lack thereof. I will not present or promote any particular theology and am not trying to convert anyone to a particular set of beliefs. If I mention an author or religious leader it is because I think this particular person has something valuable to share which I believe will enrich our discussion; it should not be considered a wholesale endorsement of either the individual or their belief system.

A word about translations of the Bible: over the years I have worked with several different translations, mostly depending on what was available and convenient: for example, for much of my work on the book, I used the New American Standard Bible for a very practical reason: my wife gave me a very handy pocket size version which I could easily carry! At other times I have used the New Revised Standard Version or the New American Bible because they both have extensive footnotes which not only provide a cultural and historic context for various sections but also have a “cross-reference” system which refers readers to other parts of the Bible which cover similar topics for selected sections.

I am not a Bible scholar in any academic sense and I assume that neither are the vast majority of readers! But I believe that any of these translations or their direct offspring will be adequate for our purposes. All are well researched and up to date renderings of the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, the languages which various parts of the Bible were originally written in. While there may be special value to reading scripture in the ancient languages, we’ll need to spend some time explaining why that is the case. So let’s come back to this in another post.

Having gone over some introductory points, lets jump in and start our journey of discovery. We will be using the book of Proverbs as a sort of “base camp” from which we will both venture out (to other parts of the Bible) and return to. I have chosen Proverbs for both for its practicality and its universality. Much of what we read in proverbs is “self-evident”, i.e. truisms that we recognize as true on some level even though we may not have not fully grasped or appreciated. It is the most universal of all the books of the Bible in the sense that it deals with basic principles of living common to all people regardless of ethnicity or even religion. It addresses issues of work, charity, virtues and human relationships but also extols the importance of wisdom and describes benefits, both worldly and spiritual, of seeking and developing it. At times Proverbs contrasts the way of the wise and the righteous vs that of the “fool” and the unrighteous in a very concrete way which is easy for anyone to understand. In other passages deep insights are presented which may take several readings to fully comprehend.

Among the many books of the Bible, Proverbs is “light” on theology which is fitting for my goal of attracting as wide an audience as possible. I would like to avoid alienating anyone who may have negative associations with organized religion or theology. While Proverbs does have periodic references to “the Lord”, there is no mention of “God” per se and none of the dialogue or direct interaction between God and prophets or other Biblical characters as in other books of the Bible. Put another way, I will aim to avoid any “stumbling blocks” so that as many readers as possible can access insights and strategies which I believe can be very helpful and even therapeutic. It is also interesting that Proverbs is the only book of the Bible which describes the Divine in feminine terms. This “feminine remnant” of divine terminology is a fascinating topic which is highly relevant to the field of psychiatry and we will return to it later.

An additional benefit of using Proverbs as a base camp is that it lends itself very well to a simple, practical way to study scripture. Here is why:
reading scripture can be overwhelming and many people don’t know where to start. Or once having started they have trouble staying on track or get disillusioned if they encounter difficult or obscure passages. Proverbs has the convenient feature of having 31 Chapters, essentially one chapter for each day of the month. So one can just note the date and start reading the Chapter for that day. If we miss a day or two we can either go back to where we left off or we can go right to the Chapter for the new day. Also, some Chapters are rather long so we may not have time to finish on any particular day. But we can circle back at any time, and of course next month we will have a chance to pick up where we left off.

Using this strategy of the chapter of Proverbs corresponding to the day of the month, lets go ahead and start with the first part of Chapter 1. It begins by giving us on overview of the purpose of the book of Proverbs:

“To know wisdom and instruction,
To discern the sayings of understanding,
To receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity,
To give prudence to the naïve,
To the youth, knowledge and discretion”.
A wise man will hear and increase in understanding
And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel”.

There is lot to chew on there but it does sound pretty good, right? These first five verses certainly cover a lot of ground, making some rather sweeping promises to both young and old, “naïve” and “wise”. The various words and concepts in these promises, which speak to the benefits of what reading Proverbs can do for us, have significance. And while similar in meaning they also involve distinct differences which we can look forward to delving into as we read on in own study and by tuning in here for community reflection and discussion.

Some of these concepts (e.g. behavior, discretion, prudence) are of particular interest to psychiatry which nowadays is often referred to as “behavioral health” but, considering the Greek origin of “psyche” and “iatros” also means “healing of the spirit”. In its 31 Chapters, Proverbs covers the gamut of human experience and behavior from as well as deeper spiritual aspects. Proverbs devotes a lot of space and attention to speech, an aspect of behavior that happens to be one of a psychiatrist’s primary tools. No other medical specialty considers human speech and dialogue as a form of treatment. Of course psychotherapy is not the sole purview of psychiatrists; there are many more licensed counselors, psychologists, social workers and other therapists providing psychotherapy than psychiatrists. Knowing when and how to speak as well as when to refrain from speaking is not only vital to mental health professionals but—as Proverbs attests to—it is vital to each and every one of us.

We will come back to Chapter 1 in more detail in subsequent blog posts but while we’re on the subject of speech, consider the following passage from a later Chapter of Proverbs. It drives home in a powerful, if not stark fashion the vital importance of speech:

“Death and life in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit”
— Proverbs 18:21

Let’s let that sink in. Think about how it might apply, either in our own lives or what we noticed in our life experience in general. Thank you for your attention and I look forward to seeing you soon.