Pope Francis reveals he had psychoanalysis in 1970s

In a new book, Pope Francis reveals that he consulted a Jewish psychoanalyst once a week for six months when he was 42 years old and that it “helped me a lot at a moment in my life…when I needed to clarify things.” Gerard O'Connell reports in America Magazine.

Pope Francis disclosed this very personal detail of his life for the first time in a book-length interview with a French intellectual, Dominique Wolton, that will be published on 6 September, the day the pope travels to Colombia.

In this 432-page book, Pope Francis: Politics and Society. Conversations with Dominique Walton, the Jesuit pope shares hitherto unknown aspects of his personal life and his vision of the world. He talks about many subjects including the migrant crisis, paedophile priests, “the fear” that is gripping Europe today, politics and religion, dialogue between religions, globalization, the inequalities in today’s world, ecology, relations with Islam, fundamentalism, ecumenism, the family, communion for the divorced and remarried, joy and much else.

He also speaks about the women who have influenced him, including his mother, his two grandmothers and a communist woman in Buenos Aires—Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, who was killed during the military dictatorship in Argentina after founding the movement of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. He describes these women as “courageous.”

To read Gerard O'Connell's report in America magazine, see: www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/08/31/new-book-pope-francis-says-he-consulted-psychoanalyst-speaks-about-women-his-life