MORATORIUM AND MINISTRY: A MODEL OF THE ADULT DEVELOPMENT OF FORMER ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS.
Item
-
Title
-
MORATORIUM AND MINISTRY: A MODEL OF THE ADULT DEVELOPMENT OF FORMER ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS.
-
Identifier
-
AAI8629696
-
identifier
-
8629696
-
Creator
-
GINNETTY, PAUL FRANCIS.
-
Contributor
-
Laurence Gould
-
Date
-
1986
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Clinical
-
Abstract
-
This dissertation explores the ways in which current notions about normative adult development, especially those proposed by Daniel J. Levinson, relate to the experience of former Roman Catholic priests. It is proposed that the role restrictions proper to priesthood correlate with an idiosyncratic experience of some common adult developmental tasks, at least in terms of their timing and external enactment. Two case histories are examined to support the hypothesis that for some men the years of seminary and priesthood represent a psychosocial moratorium. The decision to pursue this non-normative lifestyle may bespeak a lack of preparedness to negotiate some of the normative adult developmental tasks, notably separation from family of origin, sexuality and intimacy, and issues around competition and advancement. The moratorium setting offers such men psychological time and space within which to address unfinished developmental business. That developmental work is often pursued in activities and investments of the self which are parallel or analogous to the enactment which is being deferred. While the specific developmental enactment is being postponed the broader developmental work may be proceeding apace. The decision to leave priesthood in such cases is likely to be an expression of growth, representing the ability to and the need to experience tasks once deferred. It is likely that the idiosyncracy of the ex-priests' early adult years will leave areas in which they must catch up developmentally, both in terms of their negotiation of concrete developmental enactments and the residual psychological work of emerging from the moratorium. There may well be some final costs of having deferred particular enactments in terms of the extent to which such men can recoup or the price they must pay to do so. There are also likely to be some benefits of having experienced a moratorium, ways in which their idiosyncratic experience has allowed for particular enactments and kinds of intrapsychic experience which are more difficult and less common within the mainstream. The moratorium hypothesis suggests that there can be greater variability in normal developmental experience than the prevailing concepts of a fixed sequence of age-linked developmental tasks would suggest.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Psychology
