August 24, 2026

Tend The Soul First

The great malady of the twentieth century, implicated in all of our troubles and affecting us individually and socially, is 'loss of soul.' When soul is neglected, it doesn't just go away; it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence, and loss of meaning.

Thomas Moore wrote these words at the opening of Care of the Soul, published in 1992 after years of work as a psychotherapist and former Catholic monk who had grown skeptical of modern psychology's rush to diagnose and fix. He watched patients treat their pain as a problem to eliminate rather than a message worth hearing, and saw how quickly relief chased away real reflection. Moore drew on Renaissance thinkers like Marsilio Ficino, who saw melancholy and struggle as part of a full life rather than a malfunction to correct. His point speaks to resilience now because lasting strength doesn't come from suppressing what troubles us but from staying close enough to notice what it's telling us.