Norman Vincent Peale, Smiley Blanton and the Hidden Energies of the Mind

Peale associates the founding of the clinic at Marble Collegiate Church with clinical evidence of the role of mental and emotional problems in physical illness. For example, in a study of 500 patients of an outpatient clinic, 386 (or 77%) were “found to be ill of psychosomatic difficulties—physical illness caused largely by unhealthy mental states.” Another clinic conducted a study of a large number of ulcer cases and reported that “nearly half were made ill, not as the result of physical troubles, but because the patients worried too much or hated too much, had too much guilt, or were tension victims” (p. 188). He also cites the case of Harold Sherman, author and playwright, who was asked to revise an important radio presentation with the promise that he would be contracted as the permanent writer. After several months of work, however, he was dismissed and his material was used without credit. This resulted in financial difficulty and humiliation. The injustice “rankled in his mind” and “developed into a growing bitterness against the radio executive who had broken faith with him” (p. 150). He began to develop a mycosis, a fungal growth that attacked the membranes of his throat. He received the best medical attention, but it was not until he was able to develop “a feeling of forgiveness and understanding” that the condition gradually corrected itself (pp. 150–151). In his study of psychosomatic illness, Edward Shorter (1992) traces the changes in psychosomatic symptoms in the early-to-middle decades of the twentieth century from motor hysteria (e.g., unexplainable paralyses in the legs and arms) to chronic fatigue and psychogenic pain. In focusing on persons who experienced themselves as defeated, dispirited, and depressed, Peale was clearly aware of the fact that he was combating psychosomatic symptoms and engaged, therefore, in a healing ministry not unlike that in which Jesus was also engaged (Capps 2008).

In the interests of space, I will not discuss Blanton’s (1971) Diary of My Analysis with Sigmund Freud, which includes biographical notes and comments by his wife, Margaret Gray Blanton, and was published posthumously. In his diary notes on his session with Freud on August 31, 1938, Blanton indicates that he spoke of his work at the Marble Collegiate Church and that he saw patients who were referred to him by the minister. He added that he was planning to write a book with Dr. Peale (Faith Is the Answer) and that he would write on the psychiatric aspect of each subject and Peale would present his side. Freud asked if he thought he could do it (i.e., actually collaborate with a minister), but when Blanton repeated that they would do their writing independently of one another, Freud said, “Oh, yes, that seems quite possible” (p. 104). Blanton then said that he saw “no reason why I should not do this church work without impairing my psychiatric standing and psychoanalytic standards” and Freud said, “I don’t see why not.” He also mentioned that although he had an official position with the church, he was not paid for it, to which Freud replied, in a tone of approbation, “But it gives you reputation” (p. 104). They also discussed the miracles at Lourdes and cures by means of prayers to which Freud was either skeptical or noncommittal, but when Blanton mentioned a cure by means of hypnosis, Freud said “These are authentic cases,” adding that he had witnessed such cases while he was working (in 1889) with Dr. Hippolyte Bernheim (p. 85). Against J. M. Charcot, with whom Freud also worked, Bernheim took the view that anyone, not only hysterics, may be susceptible to a hypnotic trance because such trances are purely a matter of suggestion (Gay 1988, p. 51). Finally, a comment in the diary that is especially relevant to the central claim of this article is his observation that “One gets a feeling of increased power after these visits with the professor. They seem to cause a heightening of one’s attention and to bring to the surface relationships and new conceptions that had lain dormant before” (p. 92). In other words, exploring his unconscious thoughts and feelings in Freud’s company was an energizing experience.