Book Reviewed by Charles Kinnaird,
Birmingham, AL
Fulfilling Heart & Soul: Meeting Psychological and Spiritual Needs with Conscience
N.S. Xavier, MD., Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2006,$26, $15 (paperback).
The unexamined life is not worth living, as Socrates famously stated. Dr. N. S. Xavier has a remedy. He has given us a delightful book which can serve as a primer for healthy examination leading to a full and meaningful life. I had an “aha moment” right from the beginning as I read the introduction of Fulfilling Heart & Soul, where the author explains the difference between conscience and the superego. The conscience uses reason, fairness, and compassion in guiding the individual toward right thinking and right actions. The superego, on the other hand, is that inner guide that is shaped by family and society. There are times when the superego may actually be in conflict with the conscience if it arises from an unhealthy family or social system. Racism and fanaticism are two examples of unhealthy prompts from a superego shaped by unhealthy societal and religious traits.
The illumination continues with the opening chapter where Dr. Xavier demonstrates how Jesus helped others to get past their superego to make use of their conscience. In the case in which some men brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, demanding that she be stoned, Jesus was able to calmly diffuse the situation to allow the men to cease from their unthinking legalistic reaction. He showed them how to use their conscience to bring fairness to the situation. Dr. Xavier is from India and has practiced psychiatry in Birmingham for 29 years. He writes from a deep understanding of religion and spirituality and presents a well-articulated view of healthy psychology. In this text he draws upon examples from literature, various religious traditions, and historical figures as well as from his own experiences as a psychiatrist to illustrate healthy ways of meeting needs and finding fulfillment, offering insights from the likes of Lao-tze, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Boris Pasternak, Albert Camus, Jesus and the Buddha in order to stop self-defeating habits and move toward a healthy identity. There is also an intriguing story of the ancient king Asoka, who reassessed his life and legacy and was able to transform himself and his society to one of equity and fairness by embracing Buddhism and its principles.
Writing with humor and clarity, the author provides us with a practical guide for using the conscience in making right choices and enjoying the healthy pleasures of life. We are given psychological insight that is accessible to the layperson in matters ranging from self esteem, relationships, and sexuality to freedom and identity. Stick-on tabs may come in handy to mark particularly useful pages. There is a page that lists ways to improve self esteem and another that lists traits of self-actualizing people. One chapter has a table that compares healthy guilt vs. unhealthy guilt and another table contrasts authentic individuality with egocentrism and dependency. We are reminded also of the benefits of pleasure and the healthiness of laughter. For those interested in spiritual practice, an appendix includes introductory information on meditation and centering prayer.
There is advice in the book for integrating past experiences in beneficial ways rather than being trapped in unhealthy cycles. Fulfilling Heart & Soul provides means for achieving forgiveness and reconciliation as well as methods for finding hope. The author consistently demonstrates how conscience can raise self-esteem in cases where the superego may be causing unhealthy guilt. Of course, professional help is recommended for anyone with issues or problems that are beyond the scope of self examination. In the search for deeper meaning, there is guidance for those in religious traditions as well as for those who are more secular in their orientation. The modern spiritual pilgrim will find affirmation in the concept of using conscience to integrate scientific knowledge with spiritual life. Whether we are religious or secular in our orientation, we can live lives of superficiality or we can find a deeper purpose. Self examination and conscience can help us to remove some of the spiritual and psychological defenses that often keep us from living at a deeper level.
Sigmund Freud gave us the concept of the superego. N.S. Xavier has liberated the conscience from the superego to give us method of examination for individual growth and societal development. He writes with a frankness and honesty not often seen in books on spirituality, and offers a practical application of spiritual values not always evident in self-help guides. We are shown how to better understand our own needs as well as others’ needs, and then how to go about meeting those needs in a healthy way. Fulfilling Heart & Soul is a groundbreaking work of insight that will encourage the individual reader. It would also be a dynamic study tool for small groups or for courses in counseling, ethics, or spirituality/religion.
