Dr. Paul Tournier (RIP), was a Swiss physician, pastoral psychotherapist and theologian. His writings and his work with people advocate a deeply personal approach to human trama, as distinct from a strict, clinical approach.
In 1940 he published his first book, Medecine de la Personne, The Healing of Persons.
I had admired Dr. Tournier for years, knowing only that our view of personhood, God and redemption fell along remarkably similar lines. Acquainting myself further, I discovered that Tournier lost his father, a minister of the gospel, a few months after he was born. So did I lose my minister father 10 months after I was born. A few years later, he lost his mother to breast cancer. A few months after my father's passing, my mother was committed to a mental hospital where she lived until she too, died of cancer. He was raised by aunts and uncles, as was I.
During my growing-up years, like Tournier, I became lonely, shy and introverted. This lasted through my adolescence and sometimes, even haunts me today.
Tournier died at 88. I am 87 (2023). Hopefully, I shall outlive him a few years, but if not, as the apostle Paul says, "to depart is far better."
In the course of my lifetime, twenty-three years of my career has been devoted to pastoral psychotherapy. Two of those years were spent as the Program Director for two acute care mental health hospitals.
Tournier had no theological education, as I have had. I have had no medical training, as did he. Still, without knowing anything about Dr. Tourneir's life, his life and mine have followed almost identical paths.
While I have obviously been deeply impacted by the life and work of Dr. Tournier, I make no attempt to duplicate his writings. I would like to say that I have made but a meager attempt to build upon them. His writings and ideas are his own. Any content you find in my writings is likewise, my own.
Whether his writings or mine, I commend them to my reader's benefit and learning. If you were a student of Dr. Paul Tournier, you would become a child of God, and a better person. If you visit paulmorris.org well and often, you may discover the syonym.
-- PDM
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