Over my decades as a psychiatrist, I've treated thousands of patients. Many come to me asking the same fundamental question: "Why must I suffer?" Today, I want to talk about Good Friday because no day in human history better answers this essential psychological question.
Let me be direct: Good Friday is misnamed if you're looking at the surface. There was nothing "good" about watching a man – regardless of whether you believe he was divine – being tortured to death on a crude wooden cross. As a physician who understands trauma, I can tell you the clinical reality of crucifixion was a masterpiece of psychological and physical torture.
But here's what I've learned treating the human mind: Our greatest growth often follows our deepest pain.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL POWER OF SYMBOLIC DEATH
In my practice, I've seen patients transform only after facing their darkest truths. The alcoholic who must hit bottom. The narcissist who must experience the collapse of their false self. The trauma survivor who must revisit their wound to truly heal it.
Good Friday embodies this psychological principle on a cosmic scale.
What happens when we strip away all defense mechanisms? What remains when status, physical comfort, and even dignity are removed? That's what Good Friday forces us to confront. It's a psychological excavation down to the bedrock.
THE COLLECTIVE TRAUMA WE ALL CARRY
My patients often resist facing their pain. Our culture does the same. We numb ourselves with distraction, medication, consumption – anything to avoid sitting with our wounds.
Good Friday demands the opposite. It insists we look directly at suffering. Not to wallow in it but because the only path to authentic healing runs straight through our darkest valleys.
I've observed something remarkable in therapy: those who fully process their grief develop a resilience that those who avoid it never find.
WHY MODERN HUMANS DESPERATELY NEED GOOD FRIDAY
We live in an age of unprecedented comfort and unprecedented emptiness. Depression rates skyrocket while our material comforts multiply. This isn't coincidental.
The psychological wisdom of Good Friday offers what our quick-fix culture cannot: meaning within suffering, not despite it.
When I counsel patients facing devastating life events – terminal illness, betrayal, loss – I don't offer platitudes. I help them find the thread of meaning woven through their pain. Good Friday stands as humanity's ultimate symbol that our darkest hour can become the birthplace of our greatest transformation.
THE DIAGNOSIS AND PRESCRIPTION
Here's my assessment: We suffer from chronic avoidance of necessary pain. We pathologize normal grief. We medicate discomfort before extracting its lessons.
Good Friday prescribes a different approach: radical acceptance of suffering as a doorway, not a dead end.
Whether you're religious or not, this psychological framework offers profound healing. I've seen it work with countless patients. The ones who transform their lives aren't those who avoid their personal crucifixions but those who walk through them fully conscious.
That's the true meaning of calling this dark day "good." Not because suffering itself is good, but because what can emerge from it – wisdom, compassion, resurrection of the authentic self – truly is.
And that's not just theology. That's the psychological truth.
