Psych. 2 – IV. 6 – 10. Jesus: “Illness of any kind can be seen as the result of viewing the self as weak, vulnerable, evil and endangered, and thus in need of constant defense. Yet if such were really the self, defense of it would be impossible!
Therefore the defenses sought for this ‘little self’ through psychotherapy must be external and magical. They must seem to overcome all limits perceived in the self by making a new self-concept into which the old one cannot return.
Illness is therefore a mistake, and as a mistake, needs correction in the mind, not magic. And as we have already emphasized, correction cannot be achieved by first establishing the mistake as ‘real and true,’ and then attempting to ‘overlook’ it. If illness were real, it could not, in truth, be overlooked, for to overlook reality is insanity!
Yet that is magic’s purpose. It is to make illusions of ‘a reality outside of you’ seem true through false perception! This cannot heal, for it opposes truth. Perhaps for a little while, an illusion of ‘better health’ is substituted for the symptoms of illness, but not for long. Fear cannot long be hidden by illusions, for it is part of them. As the source of all illusions, it will still be there, ready to take another form.
Sickness is insanity because all sickness is mental illness, and in it there are no degrees! One of the illusions by which sickness is perceived as real is the belief that illness varies in intensity; that the degree of threat differs according to the specific form it takes. Herein lies the basis of all errors, for all of them are but attempts to compromise by seeing ‘just a little bit of hell!’
The therapist is likely to be seen as one who is attacking the patient’s most cherished possession; his picture of himself; who and what he thinks he is! And since this picture has become the patient’s security as he perceives it, the therapist, then, cannot but be seen as a source of danger, to be attacked and maybe even killed.
The therapist, then, be he healer, helper, partner, teacher or friend, has a tremendous responsibility. He must meet attack without attack, and therefore without defense! It is his task to demonstrate that defenses are not necessary, and that defenselessness is strength. This must be his teaching, if his lesson is to be that sanity is safe.”