This is a quick paper I needed to write for one of my classes. It’s the deepest I’ve thought for a while. =)
—
What is reality? What is truth? And what is the difference? As a Christian, I believe in an absolute truth, the unwavering characteristic of rightness, what truly is, central constants that anchor one to their world, all of which have the power to transform one’s life if embraced and lived out fully in heart, mind, soul, and feelings. I believe absolute truth is revealed through the Holy Bible, God’s vehicle for communicating to man, and I believe it applies to any individual, whether they choose to believe it or not. This, to me, is an objective truth, that which stands regardless of time, one’s feelings, beliefs, opinions, and experience. A couple of these truths include that all humans have intrinsic worth and all humans can have hope and strength from God. My process of getting there was seeing God in all the little things, leaping out in faith and trusting Him a little bit at a time at His Word, witnessing firsthand the confirmation of truth, and trusting Him with more of what God says to be true in the Bible, and so on. Up until college, I thought I was completely worthless and incapable of doing anything good. As I began to step away from my self-constructed underlying truth and step in faith toward what God says about my worth as a human, for example, I was empowered when I saw that taking little steps towards more positive truths actually yielded results! Instead of sabotaging attempts at happiness before I even had the opportunity to (self-fulfilling prophecy, I believe), I actually tried to trust God and believe that I was capable of good and deserved good. The more I trusted God, the better I felt about myself until I came to adopt His truth as absolute truth.
As a Christian, of course I believe that what I believe to be objective truth is absolute truth as outlined in the Bible. However, what I regard as absolute truth may be absolute baloney to the next individual, and that’s where I believe subjective truth comes in. I believe truth that is subjective is constructed by an individual either knowingly or unknowingly, and are the central and underlying beliefs that dictate how one feels about and perceives themselves and how they view the world. For example, an individual who grew up in an abusive home may have come to construct an underlying subjective truth that tells them that the abuse was deserved because they are intrinsically worthless and there is no hope for anything better, thus they enter in patterns of negative and abusive relationships because they don’t believe they deserve any better. The therapeutic process should thus include identifying these underlying negative constructs or subjective truths and changing them to what I believe are absolute truths. Now, this isn’t to say that as a therapist, I’m going to push my religious beliefs on them, but I believe certain absolute truths from the Bible to be universal, regardless of religious preference. Much progress can be made by introducing these central and absolute truths without labeling these beliefs as “Christian.” I also highly believe in incorporating spirituality in therapy as a source of strength, hope, and guidance for the client, and again, know better than to try to convert the client to my religious preference.
I believe that one’s reality is related to their surrounding circumstance and can be incongruent with their underlying truths. Reality is neither right nor wrong, neither subjective nor objective, it just is. I think one’s subjective truths are initially created based off of the interpretations of the reality of one’s given situation, but the truth does not necessarily need to match the reality. For example, with the person who grew up in an abusive home, the reality of their circumstances may still be the same. However, the underlying truth is no longer their own constructed truth, but the voice of God’s truth. While the reality is that they are being told they are worthless and incapable of any good achievement, their perception and interpretation of reality is largely influenced by the truths they hold to. Before, their reality largely influenced their perception of truth, and these guiding truths directed parts of their reality. Now, whether circumstances are good or bad, reality does not affect the truths held, but the truths largely influence the actions taken and thus have a huge impact on reality. I think a large part of therapy is separating reality from the truth, and creating a secure foundation in healthy and absolute truths about mankind, such that reality no longer affects truth, but truth affects reality. I hope this all makes sense. :-)
