III

THE FUNDAMENTAL MORAL PRINCIPLES CONCERNING THE HUMAN PERSONALITY IN PSYCHOLOGY

The answers which We have given up to the present still call for a survey of the basic principles from which they are derived and on the basis of which, in each specific case you will be able to form a fully justified personal judgment.

We will only refer to the principles of a moral order which concern both the personality of the person who practices psychology and that of the patient, to the extent that the latter intervenes through a free and responsible step.

Certain actions are contrary to morals because they only violate the norms of a positive law; others are in themselves of an immoral character; among these the only ones which We will deal with-some will never be moral: others will become immoral because of determined circumstances.

Thus, for example, it is immoral to penetrate into the conscience of someone; but this act becomes moral if the person involved gives his valid consent. It can also happen that certain actions lay a person open to the dangers of violating a moral law: thus, for instance, the use of tests can in certain cases engender immoral impressions, but this action becomes moral when proportionate motives justify the danger incurred.

One can therefore establish three kinds of immoral actions, which can be judged as such by referring to the three basic principles: whether they are immoral either in themselves, or because the person who enacts them lacks the right to do so, or because of the dangers they provoke without sufficient motive.

Immoral actions in themselves are those where the constitutive elements are incompatible with moral order, that is to say with healthy reasoning; where conscious and free action is contrary either to the essential principles of human nature or to the essential relations which it has with the Creator and with other men, or to the rules governing the use of material things, in the sense that man must never become their slave but must remain their master.

It is therefore contrary to moral order that man should freely and consciously submit his rational faculties to inferior instincts. When the application of the tests, or of psycho-analysis or of any other method reaches this extreme, it becomes immoral and must be refuted without discussion. It is naturally up to your conscience to determine in the individual cases, the lines of conduct to be rejected.

Actions which are immoral because the person who enacts them has no right to do so, do not in themselves contain any essential immoral element but, if they are to be licit, they must suppose the existence of an explicit or implicit right as will be the case in the majority of instances for the doctor and the psychologist. Since a right cannot be taken for granted, it must first of all be established through positive proof by the person who assumes it and based on a juridical reason.

As long as the right has not been obtained, the action is immoral. But if, at a specific time, an action appears to be immoral, it does not still follow that it will always remain such, because it can happen that the right shown to be lacking is acquired later.

Nevertheless, the right in question can never be taken for granted. As We said previously, again in this instance, it is up to you to decide in concrete cases, many examples of which are quoted in the publications of your specialization, whether this principle is applicable to such or such an action.

Thirdly, certain actions are immoral because of the danger incurred without a proportionate motive. We naturally refer to moral danger for the individual or the community, either regarding the personal property of the body, of life, of reputation, of customs or with respect to material assets.

It is obviously impossible to avoid danger completely and such a demand would paralyze all enterprise and would seriously harm every one's interests; hence, moral law permits this risk to be taken on the condition that it is justified by a motive proportionate to the importance of the assets at stake and to the proximity of the danger which threatens them.

You refer several times in your works to the danger engendered by certain techniques, by certain procedures used in applied psychology. The principle which We have laid before you will help you solve in each case the difficulties that may arise.

The norms which We have formulated are above all of a moral order. When psychology discusses a method or the effectiveness of a technique on the theoretical plane, it only considers their aptitude to achieve the specific aim psychology pursues and does not deal with the moral aspect.

In the practical application one must also take into account the spiritual values involved both in the psychologist and the patient and add to the scientific and medical point of view that of the human personality in general.

These fundamental norms are obligatory because they are engendered by the nature of things and belong to the essential order of human action, the supreme and immediately evident principle of which is that one must do good and avoid evil.

At the beginning of this address, we described personality as the "psychosomatic unity of man insofar as determined and governed by the soul" and We have specified the meaning of this definition. Then, We endeavored to answer your questions on the use of certain psychological methods and on the general principles which determine the moral responsibility of the psychologist.

One does not expect the psychologist to have only a theoretical knowledge of abstract norms, but also a deep moral and pondered sense formed by constant loyalty to his conscience. The psychologist who really wishes to seek only the welfare of his patient will be all the more careful to respect the limitations placed upon his actions by morals, since one can say that he holds in his hands the psychic faculties of a man, his capacity of acting freely, of attaining the highest values of his personal destiny and of his social vocation.

It is Our wholehearted wish that your work may ever increasingly penetrate into the complexities of the human personality, that it may help it remedy its weaknesses and meet more faithfully the sublime designs which God, its Creator and Redeemer, formulates for it and proposes to it as its ideal.

As a token of this We call upon you, your collaborators and your families the most abundant heavenly favors, and heartily grant you Our apostolic benediction.