In this regard, the fact that a
dishonest steward in the Gospel reading (Luke 16:1-13) of the 25th
Sunday was caught on his usurious practice, harming his master’s
reputation. Of course, those whom this
steward had exploited were poor enough to borrow money from his master. Thus,
the steward was cheating on the poor and pocketing the difference between what
his master actually charged and the inflated amounts he charged.
In fact, among the Jews, making personal
profit through lending money was prohibited (i.e. Exodus 22:24-25, Leviticus
25:36-37, Deuteronomy 23:19-21). So, this steward should not have added any amount to the exact amounts that the
debtors owed his master. The fact that
the master had to summon this steward due to bad reputations also tells that
the steward was engaging in usurious practice. Perhaps, he was also
concerned about his clients who were exploited by his steward’s unethical
conducts.
When confronted by his wrong-doing by
his master, the steward did not express his remorse at all. He did not even
apologize for his cheating. There is no
evidence that he repented, either. Rather, this steward responded to his master’s
inquiry very shrewdly.
When Adam and Eve were confronted by God,
neither of them repented for disobeying God but simply responded excuses,
blaming on others (Genesis 3:8-10). The way Adam and Eve responded to God’s
confrontation indicates that their concern is about themselves. And, it was
what the steward in the Gospel parable was concerned about. Just as Adam and
Eve, the steward remained selfish.
But, an interesting thing about the
steward is that a good behavior came out of his selfishness. Out of his fears
of reprimanding and punishment by his master, the steward came up with a clever
idea to minimize a negative impact on himself from the consequence of his
dishonesty. So, he wasted no time to
move to a damage-control action to save himself by calling his master’s debtors
and stroke better loan deals with them. This way, the steward could make
himself look better of himself by easing the amounts of debt for them. It means that he had to forfeit the last batch
of unethical profit-making for himself before he would get fired. But, in
exchange, he calculated that he would gain these debtors as his new friends.
The below narrative from the Gospel
reading indicates the steward’s self-centered motive to ease the debt of his
master’s clients, rather than responding to his master’s confrontation with his
remorse and intent for restitution.
He (the
master) summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full
account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The
steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the
position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am
ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’ Luke 16:2-4
The steward exhibits unprincipled narcissistic personality
in Theodore Millon’s clinical classification scheme of personality disorders (Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV-TM and Beyond. 1996), as
he is so boldly shameless and unscrupulous all the way to his core. In fact, he responded to his master’s
confrontation with even more moral callousness to avoid negative impacts on
himself.
Furthermore, the clinical concept of “the
Dark Triad”, developed and empirically examined by Paulhaus & Williams
(2002) (“The Dark Triad of personality:
narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy”, J. of Research in
Personality, 36(6):556-563) offers a better contextual view on the steward’s
pathological narcissistic personality.
According to “the Dark Triad”, narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy
are overlapping significantly. It means
that the steward’s narcissism bears the character of Machiavellianism and
psychopathic factors. In fact, given the steward’s cleverness in pragmatism and
manipulativeness not only to fatten himself with money but also to save
himself, he certainly shares a significant amount of pathological
Machiavellianism.
Perhaps, the kind gestures the steward
made to his master’s debtors in reaction to a prospect of punishment on him,
being fired, also indicates Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique on hypocrisy in kind and compassionate behaviors. In his “Beyond
Good and Evil”(1886), Nietzsche argued that cowards exhibit helpful
behaviors to others in order not only to feel good about themselves but also to
enjoy a sense of control over those whom they help.
Remember, this man, has too much pride
in himself – too proud to accept the shame, to ask forgiveness, and to
reconcile, as he refused to face the full consequences for his dishonest
behaviors. But, it was, indeed, his
narcissistic ingenuity that motivated him to exhibit “helpful behaviors” to the
victims of usurious practice.
This is, indeed, an irony, in the Gospel
parable that the steward’s narcissism ended up contributing to helpful actions
to the victims of his exploitative stewardship!
It is because of the steward exceptional shrewdness.
It is evident that what is underneath
in the steward’s mind is his obsession with money. In fact, in his September 20, 2013, homily,
in regard to 1 Timothy 6:2c-12, Pope Francis attributed greed and obsession
with money to idolatry, upon stating that the love of money is root of all
evil. The love of money means obsession with or, as Buddhist say, attachment (raga)
to, money. And, Pope Francis views this
as a form of idolatry.
In this regard, the steward in the
Gospel parable seems to have the same psychospiritual problem as Judas Iscariot
had – though the degrees of their pathologies are on different levels while
they are on the same spectrum of idolatry – attachment (raga) to money.
Psychologically, a major bottom line
factor for attachment to money or other material stuff is a sense of insecurity
or anxiety. What produces attachment to
money – what prompts idolatry is what St. Augustine called “restless hearts”
that needs to find peace and restfulness in God. Such hearts namely correspond
to insecure minds, plagued with anxieties both on conscious and subconscious
domains. And, as Pope indicated, such
minds, such hearts, are detrimental to healthy strong faith development.
So, what’s a cure for the steward’s
narcissistic personality disorder? How can this man of Machiavellianism or Machiavellian
narcissism can be resolved?
Generally speaking, a plethora of
personality disorders are extremely difficult to treat. This is particularly so
with narcissistic personality disorder because it is very difficult to
establish rapport with narcissists.
You do not have to be a psychologist to
understand how reluctant a narcissistic person to go for psychotherapy. Like the steward in the Gospel parable,
narcissists often feel they do not need any help as they tend to believe they
can help themselves. Their Machiavellian
manipulativeness not only goes to control others but to control themselves and
their own fate – not for self-discipline but to bring selves to directions of
their own desires. Not to mention, the steward succeeded to bring himself to
the direction of his own desire by avoiding possible hard labor as a punishment
but rather to win new friendships from his victims by manipulating deals with
them.
But, to counter such a reluctant
narcissist, like the steward, Heinz Kohut advocates to approach psychotherapy
with empathy (“Forms and
transformations of narcissism”, J of the American Psychoanalytic
Association, Vol 14(2), 1966, 243-272).
Heinz believes that patiently and persistently treating narcissists like
the steward, will help to transform their narcissism into healthy object
love. On the other hand, Otto Kernberg
advocates for a confrontational therapeutic approach to narcissists (“Borderline conditions and pathological
narcissism”, 1975). However, as far
as the steward in the Gospel parable is concerned, narcissists, especially
shrewd Machiavellian type , like the steward, may find ways to circumvent
therapeutic confrontation.
In light of the Gospel and Christian theology, I believe
that Kohut’s empathy-based approach is appropriate to treat narcissists like
the steward with psychotherapy. As a
pastoral psychologist, in putting empathy forefront in my therapeutic practice,
I strive to ensure that the empathy in therapy reflects the mercy of God, which
was a major theme for the 24th Sunday Gospel reading (Luke 15:1-32),
as well as the mercy of Amitabha Buddha.
The empathy that mirrors the divine and Buddha’s salvific desire (hongan in Japanese Shin Buddhism) shall
convert narcissist’s self-centered obsession to more others-oriented objective
love. In this regard, I also believe that Morita Therapy, which gradually shift
client’s/patient’s locus of attention from self to non-self, is effective in
its integration with Kohut’s empathy-based psychodynamic treatment.
Of course, I am open to integrate Marsha Linehan’s Dialectic
Behavioral Therapy (DBT), which is an improved modification of CBT
(cognitive-behavioral therapy) to Kohut’s empathy-focused psychodynamic
therapeutic module and Morita Therapy module.
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