Pretentious,Preposterous,Pathetic: A Response to Susan Henking and to Mary Daly on Psychology and Religion

Abstract

This response provides critique both of Mary Daly's work and of Henking's (1993) treatment of Daly's material. Critique of Daly's works focuses on the inappropriate use of psychological concepts and the rejecting and paranoid attitudes she displays toward religion, society, men, and women. Although Daly's works appear to be founded in psychology, she applies terms meant to describe intrapersonal psychological phenomena (e.g., projection, introjection) to entire religious and ideological systems. Daly advocates dissolution of psychology as patriarchal, but does so using terms borrowed from Freud, Jung, Maslow (i.e., the patriarchs of psychology). Rather than reconstructing psychology, her own pathological hatred is evidenced in splitting (Good Women, Bad Men) and paranoia. The solution Daly espouses is to annihilate men and despise women. Henking's (1993) treatment, though quoting extensively from Daly, reduces the material to bland, footnoted academic prose. She thereby misses communication of Daly's willful rejection of reason.