What's wrong with the diet? What is the role of self-love?

Chapter 4. The Influence of Calvin's Teachings on the Psyche

What we will explore: What impact did Calvin have on the church and the city?

What is new: What do Calvin's thinking and behavior have in common with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder?

What we will learn: What kind of people value self-control and why?

1. "It cannot be denied that this kind of legislation [as edited by Calvin, author's ed.] is more imbued with the severity of ancient pagan Rome and the Levitical law than with the gospel of Christ and that the actual application of discipline was often petty, pedantic, and needlessly harsh (Schaff F. 2012) [1].

2. Society [Western, author's ed.] values ​​moderate expression of some of the qualities of this personality style, such as attention to detail, self-discipline, emotional control, persistence, dependability, and politeness" (Beck A., Freeman A. 2002) [2].

3. It is impossible to deny Calvin's severity. Church historian Philip Schaff*, who deeply respected Calvin and his reformatory reforms, cannot deny the truthfulness of his enemies' assessment of Calvin's activities. They condemned Calvin as a "heartless and cruel tyrant." And the historian Schaff himself admitted this. Moreover, the historian noted that even Calvin did not deny his severity and strict control over the lives of the parishioners of the Geneva church, including interference in their private lives.

• "Calvin, as he admitted, was not free from intolerance, passion, and anger, which were intensified by physical weakness; but he was guided by a sincere zeal for the purity of the church, and not by personal feelings" (italics author) (Schaff F. 2012) [1].

However, Calvin's influence was not limited to applying strict discipline in the Geneva church. He was eager to establish his control over the entire city.

* Schaff Philip (1819 – 1893) - American theologian and historian of the Christian church.

4. Control of the city. Calvin did everything he could to ensure that the Consistory (the church administrative body) expanded its influence over the decisions of the secular authorities in the legal proceedings against the citizens of Geneva. It got to the point that the Consistory took on investigative functions, and denunciations, and surveillance were encouraged. Their actions began to resemble the Catholic Inquisition. As a result, Calvin had opponents, but he used his authority to oust them from the city authorities and then expelled them from Geneva. Instead of the expelled members of the city government, Calvin was able to introduce his supporters into the political life of Geneva. Thus, he achieved control not only over the church but also over the citizens of the city. Having an overwhelming majority of his supporters in the local authorities, Calvin demanded from them the most severe punishments for citizens who violated not only secular laws but also moral ones. Executions became the solution to the problem for his opponents and violators of morality. I will give several examples. Calvin's opponent, Michael Servetus, whom he knew, was burned at the stake. One girl was beheaded for hitting her parents. A banker was executed for repeatedly cheating on his wife. Five men accused of homosexuality were burned. Calvin believed that severe punishments for offenders would restrain human wickedness [3, 4, 5]. What diagnosis of modern psychology corresponds to the thinking and behavior of Jean Calvin?

5. Striving for perfection and control. Calvin's typical thinking, expressed in his "Instructions", as well as the above-described behavior corresponding to this thinking, can serve to establish the state of his personality's psyche. Modern psychoanalysis shows that such thinking and behavior are characteristic of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (hereinafter - OCPD). Calvin's inheritance, family, and upbringing played a role in the emergence of OCPD. The experience of psychoanalysis, accumulated over more than a century, starting from the herald of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, and ending with modern clinical data, points to the obviousness of the symptoms inherent in Calvin [2, 6]. Calvin's way of thinking and, as a result, his behavior, showed a feeling of hatred towards himself.