Article December 13, 1952 ISSUE

CAN CRITICISM HEAL?

MILTON SIMON

The goal of a Christian Scientist is to abide in a healing consciousness. The Psalmist thus expresses this aspiration (Ps. 51:10, 13): "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. ... Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee."

To attain this consciousness sought by the Psalmist one must refrain from destructive criticism, which does not heal. True criticism, however, discovers excellences as well as defects. The verb criticize means to judge, to examine, or to review. Thus one of the functions of criticism is to evaluate events, and this should lead to correction and healing. Consequently one does not need to forgo criticism. It is only destructive criticism from which he should abstain. Judging or examining in Christian Science is founded upon the basic truth that the divine Mind beholds all things as perfect as it conceived them. And because the one wholly good Mind is the only Mind of man, there is in reality no mind with the desire to criticize destructively.

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