Fascinating Reading from Jay Adams in the 1970s
I’ve read Jay Adams’s Competent to Counsel several times over the past 50 years. Here’s something I had not thought a lot about until now:
Jay’s view and use of neuroscience.
Perhaps my past two years of examining neuroscience has alerted me to this topic.
“The Nervous System Corresponds to the Nouthetic Approach”
On pages 96-97 of Competent to Counsel, Adams uses his understanding of 1970s neuroscience (“the nervous system”) to say: “The Nervous System Corresponds to the Nouthetic Approach” (96/Header).
Adams proposes that there are two sides to the human nervous system. One side is emotional and involuntary. The other side is associated with problem-solving and voluntary action and has to do with behavior (Competent to Counsel, 96).
“Something might be said about the human nervous system with respect to behavior and feeling in counseling. There are basically two sides to this system. One side is emotional and involuntary. The other side, associated with problem-solving and voluntary action has to do with behavior. The importance of this fact is that it is in the client’s behavior that changes can be made directly, because behavior, in contrast to emotion, is controlled by the voluntary, not the involuntary side of man. Emotional states flow secondarily from the behavioral or the voluntary system. The former involves the involuntary control of visceral and vascular emotional responses, whereas the latter involves action responses by the skeletal musculature. Communication between both the nervous systems must be supplied by sensory pathways of the central system. There is a close relationship or a connection between the two so that they can’t really be divided as precisely as one might on paper” (Competent to Counsel, 96-97).
Then Adams concludes with this summary implication for nouthetic counseling from his understanding of 1970s neuroscience/nervous system studies:
“While there is no direct voluntary access to the emotions, the emotions can be reached indirectly through the voluntary system, because extensive fiber overlappings in the cortex allow unified correlation of the two systems. Voluntary behavioral alterations will lead to involuntary emotional changes. It is important to understand, therefore, that feelings flow from actions” (Competent to Counsel, 97).
What Most Intrigues Me
Whether Adams’s conclusion and application of 1970s neuroscience were totally accurate or not, could be debated, then and now.
But here’s what most intrigues me:
From the start of the modern nouthetic counseling movement, the founder, Jay Adams, at the very least used “nervous system studies” or “neuroscience” as illustrative and supportive of his nouthetic model of counseling. Adams used these studies at least in a catalytic way, if not more. Adams was neuroscience-informed.
Adams does not cite footnotes for his views on pages 96-97. Elsewhere in Competent to Counsel, Adams cites many footnotes related to other topics. Adams does not make any statement on pages 96-97 about any limitations of the scientific method or any potential biases. Earlier in the book, Adams does share his perspective on science, the Bible, and counseling:
“I do not wish to disregard science, but rather I welcome it as a useful adjunct for the purposes of illustrating, filling in generalizations with specifics, and challenging wrong human interpretations of Scripture, thereby forcing the student to restudy the Scriptures” (Competent to Counsel, p. xxi).
Adams and Mowrer
While Adams did not cite any footnotes for his views on pages 96-97 of Competent to Counsel, much of the wording overlaps in many ways, and at times is nearly identical to, O. Hobart Mowrer’s writings in Learning Theory and Personality Dynamics (published in 1950). On pages 236-245, Mowrer supports his “two-factor learning theory” through a description of the “two distinct nervous systems” (238).
Like Adams, Mowrer, twenty years earlier, described two sides to the nervous system. One side is the autonomic nervous system which mediates the emotional (visceral and vascular) responses. These visceral, vascular, emotional responses “are beyond direct control” (238). The other part of the nervous systems, according to Mowrer, is the central nervous system, which mediates behavior and which may be brought under voluntary control through habit/habituation (238).
Also like Adams, Mowrer, twenty years earlier, described the extensive fiber overlapping in the cortex. Mowrer quotes Fulton saying, “In the cortex there is extensive overlapping between autonomic and somatic motor representation, making possible unified correlation between the reactions of the two systems” (245). (Note: In 1938/1943, Oxford Press, published J. F. Fulton’s book, Physiology of the Nervous System, from which Mowrer quotes, from which Adams borrows.)
Given the almost word-for-word similarity between Mowrer’s description and Adams’s description, it is clear that Adams incorporated or integrated Mowrer’s understanding into his nouthetic counseling model. Learn more about Mowrer and Adams in: Meet the Man Who Influenced the Earlier Nouthetic Counseling Movement: O. Hobart Mowrer.
Fascinating Reading from Jay Adams in the 1990s
Throughout his life and ministry, Jay Adams remained consistent in being research-aware and neuroscience-informed. In February, 1992, Adams gave a lecture on The Biblical Perspective on the Mind-Body Problem. That lecture was later published in a two-part series by The Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine. You can read Part One here. You can read Part Two here.
In Part One, Adams spends 20% of his time discussing the implications of the neuroscience studies of his day. He begins by discussing how science has observed the “duplexity” of the brain/mind.
“It might be correct to say that the spirit has a mind as the body has a brain. I want to examine that statement a little further, but that’s probably an accurate statement. At any rate, this duplexity, functioning in man, this body/spirit thing called ‘soul,’ has been scientifically observed…” (Part One, 23).
He further introduces this section:
“I want to close with some quotations from the work of Penfield, and Echols, and some others just to add that dimension to what we are saying here” (Part One, 23).
Wilder Graves Penfield was “a great explore of psyche-soma-neuroscience.” He said of himself:
“Throughout my career, I was driven by the central question that has obsessed both scientists and philosophers for hundreds of years. Are mind and body one?”
After several pages of quotations and interaction with those quotes about neuroscience and the brain/mind, Adams concludes with an admonition that Christians seriously ponder these neuroscience findings.
“As Christians I think we need to do serious thinking about these matters” (Part One, 24).
Jay Adams recommended that Christian nouthetic counselors remain research-aware and neuroscience-informed.
Implications for Today
Adams’s early and ongoing use of neuroscience raises a question that is much discussed these days:
How does the modern nouthetic/biblical counseling movement see the role of neuroscience?
Or, we could ask the question like this:
Since Jay Adams used his understanding of 1970s and 1990s neuroscience, what does that imply about the nouthetic counseling way of viewing and using neuroscience?
What does Adams’s use of neuroscience suggest about how biblical counselors might view and use neuroscience today?
Adams’s use of Mowrer’s perspective on the two distinct nervous systems—at times used almost word for word without citation—raises another relevant and vital question.
What does Adams’s use of Mowrer’s two-factor learning theory and two distinct nervous systems suggest about how biblical counselors today might view and use the findings of secular psychologists?
Adams’s use of Penfield and Echols, and his insistence that Christians give serious consideration to their neuroscience research, raises yet another timely question.
What does Adams’s insistence that nouthetic counselors give serious consideration to neuroscience research suggest about how biblical counselors today might view and use neuroscience findings?
For Further Study
Today’s post is one of many posts and other resources that I’ve collated related to biblical counseling, embodied-souls, and neuroscience. You can find all of these resources here:
128 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls.
For more about informed nouthetic counseling, see, INC: Informed Nouthetic Counseling.
For more about Jay Adams and neuroscience, see, Jay Adams on Embodied-Souls, Trauma, Neuroscience, and Physical Interventions.
For more about what historic/classic nouthetic counseling (Adams, Bettler, and Powlison) did with psychology, see, 6 Words Describing What Jay Adams and Nouthetic Counseling Do with Secular Psychology.
For more about David Powlison on common grace and psychology, see, David Powlison on Common Grace, Biblical Counseling, and Secular Psychology.
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