Cura personalis (often translated as “care for the entire person”) is a catchphrase of Ignatian spirituality and Jesuit higher-education. (Although, as Geger notes, not actually used by Ignatius or his companions, but originated in the 20th century) After reading a recent blog post by Edward Feser on Jacque Maritain’s distinction between persons and individuals in Thomistic philosophy, I got to thinking: This is the right phrase, but maybe it is often mistaken in practice for cura individualis…

Definitions

  • Person is a substance (in the Aristotelian/Thomist sense) possessing intellect and will, which are immaterial.

  • Individuality is a property of physical substances, i.e., matter. I can tell one bucket from another because they are made of different atoms. As such, individuals are subject to the the forces that govern the material world.

Quote (from Feser)

Insofar as we think of human beings as persons, then, we will tend to conceive of what is good for them in terms of what fulfills their intellects and wills, and thus (when the implications of that are properly understood) in theological terms. But insofar as we think of them as individuals, we will tend to conceive of what is good for them in terms of what is essentially bodily – material goods, pleasure and the avoidance of pain, emotional wellbeing, and the like. However, we will also be more prone to see their good as something that might be sacrificed for the whole of which they are parts. … Maritain cites a passage from Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange that summarizes the moral and spiritual implications of the distinction between individuality and personhood:

To develop one’s individuality is to live the egoistical life of the passions, to make oneself the centre of everything, and end finally by being the slave of a thousand passing goods which bring us a wretched momentary joy. Personality, on the contrary, increases as the soul rises above the sensible world and by intelligence and will binds itself more closely to what makes the life of the spirit. The philosophers have caught sight of it, but the saints especially have understood, that the full development of our poor personality consists in losing it in some way in that of God. (pp. 24-25, quoted from Garrigou-Lagrange’s Le Sens Commun)

Among the pagan philosophers, perhaps none is as clear on this theme as Plotinus, who in the Fifth Ennead contrasts individuality with orientation toward God: “How is it, then, that souls forget the divinity that begot them?… This evil that has befallen them has its source in self-will… in becoming different, in desiring to be independent… They use their freedom to go in a direction that leads away from their origin.” And among the saints, none states this contrast more eloquently than Augustine, who distinguishes “two cities [that] have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self” (City of God, Book XIV, Chapter 28). This earthly city, in its modern guise, has been built above all by individualism.

My crazy idea

  • Cura personalis should be about caring for the formation of the intellect and will of the student, in a way that aims at the cultivation and perfection of the intellect and the will. Thus properly understood, it should be aimed towards the life of contemplation and towards the Ignatian first principle and foundation.

  • In contrast, in higher education today, the defacto model is what might be termed cura individualis. It is comprised of something like the following:

    • Focus on the bodily comforts and distractions; bread and circuses model of higher education—build the climbing wall, cut the library budget type of thing. (Back in my day, our dorm was the former Jesuit residence, with no air conditioning, no internet, toilets down the hall…).
    • Excessive senses of identity and identity politics have become performatic displays of central importance — in contrast to the cosmopolitan “citizen of the world”, Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto approach of the classical liberal education.
    • Focus on academic customization (a unique experience, tailored for you!) and curricular reforms that erode the core-curriculum.