Paul Vitz

Paul C. Vitz (born August 27, 1935) is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at New York University, whose work focuses on the relationship between psychology and Christianity. He currently teaches at the Institute of the Psychological Sciences in Arlington, VA.

Vitz was born in Toledo, Ohio, moved to Minneapolis, MN and then to Cincinnati, Ohio which he considers his hometown. He graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1957 and with a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1962.

From 1962-1964, Vitz taught at Pomona College, 1964-5. Post-doc at Stanford University, Fall 1965 Assistant Professor, Psychology Department, New York University. Research focused on perceptual and cognitive psychology, especially sequential pattern learning and visual form perception. Received tenure Fall 1972. Also had an ongoing interest in psychology and art as shown in a co-authored work: "Modern Art and Modern Science: The Parallel Analysis of Vision", 1984. His career changed markedly in the mid-seventies with his conversion from atheism to Christianity and later,in 1979, to Catholicism. His first book, "Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship,1977 (2nd ed. 1994), critiqued humanistic psychology, e.g. Rogers, Maslow for its radical individualism, neglect of interpersonal relationships, and its assumption that self-actualization was the meaning of life for everyone. In the early 1980"s Vitz was involved in the national controversy over neglect of religion, especially Christianity in Public School textbooks. He authored "Censorship: Evidence of bias in our children's textbooks", 1984. During this decade he also wrote articles on Christian approaches to the work of Sigmund Freud, resulting in his book "Sigmund Freud's Christian Unconscious", 1988. This book provides much historical and biographical evidence for Freud's deep and life-long involvement and ambivalence about Christianity, especially Catholicism.The significance of this concern with Christianity has been widely neglected and ignored by his biographers. Another interest at this time was moral development involving a critique of rational/cognitive approaches, e.g. Kohlberg, and a emphasis on story's. See "The use of stories in moral development: New psychological reasons for an old education method", Amer. Psychologist, 1990. In the 1980's and especially in the 90's his work turned to personality theory and Christianity and to the psychological importance of fathers. The latter culminated in a father-based book-length critique of the psychological factors leading to atheism, "Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism", 1999 and a 2nd ed. in 2013. He is presently working on the topics of male and female complementarity, and on a large Catholic Christian Meta Model of the Person. At New York University he was promoted to full Professor and he retired from there in 2003 as Professor Emeritus. He is now Senior Scholar/Professor in the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Divine Mercy University

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