The Family Room (The Quest)

Dr. Paul Vitz, American psychologist, Senior Scholar/Professor, and author

Dr. Paul Vitz discusses the profound effect a father has on the mental and spiritual health of a family, a topic he has been studying since the 1980s and especially in the 90s when his work turned to personality theory and Christianity and to the psychological importance of fathers. The latter culminated in a book titled Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism on what Vitz claims are the psychological factors which produce atheism. Dr. Vitz also shares points from a webinar he presented for Legatus entitled “The Father’s Important Impact on the Family” in which he examined the emotional and behavioral effects of a father’s absence, positive effects of his presence, special effects of bad fathers on religion of children, effects of substitute fathers, and an understanding of a father’s enduring impact.

Dr. Paul Vitz is an American psychologist and a Senior Scholar/Professor in the Institute for the Psychological Sciences at Divine Mercy University in Sterling, Virginia. He is Emeritus Professor of psychology at New York University where he taught for many years. Dr. Vitz’s teaching and research is focused on the integration of Christian theology, especially Catholic anthropology, with psychology. This requires breaking from the modern secularism and post-modern relativism prevalent today. Dr. Vitz’s career changed markedly in the mid-seventies with his conversion from atheism to Christianity and later, in 1979, to Catholicism.

Resources

• Dr. Paul Vitz’s book Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism published by Ignatius Press
• Dr. Paul Vitz’s first book, Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship, critiqued humanistic psychology for its radical individualism, neglect of interpersonal relationships, and its assumption that self-actualization was the meaning of life for everyone.
• In the early 1980s, Dr. Vitz was involved in the national controversy over neglect of religion, especially Christianity, in public school textbooks. He authored Censorship: Evidence of Bias in our Children’s Textbooks.
• Dr. Vitz is an editor, with two colleagues, of the book A Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person: Integration with Psychology & Mental Health Practice. This book has been given an Expanded Reason Award, from the Benedict XVI Foundation, Rome, and from the University Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid.
• Dr. Vitz is editor of The Complementarity of Women and Men: Philosophy, Theology, Psychology, and Art published by The Catholic University of America Press