Paul C. Vitz, researcher and professor at Divine Mercy University (Virginia - USA), reflected at the University of Navarra on the integrated Catholic-Christian metamodel of the person. He did so at the framework of the seminar of the group 'Science, Reason and Faith' (CRYF) held on Tuesday, September 17.

Professor Vitz explained that this metamodel proposes a vision informed by Christian faith, Philosophy and the psychological sciences. He also recalled that the metamodel is a framework that explicitly employs the main theological and philosophical premises (fundamental principles) and identifies the corresponding basic psychological premises.

In his message he described and organized the distinctive qualities of human nature and the human person, in their complexity and dynamicity, with the intention of reaching a richer and truer understanding of the person in the field of mental health and improving theory, research and internship.

Paul C. Vitz, Ph.D. is researcher principal and professor at high school of Psychological Sciences, Divine Mercy University. He is a co-founder of Divine Mercy University and has been an active part of its founding in 1999. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, where he specialized in personality theory and experimental cognitive psychology. For many years he was a professor of psychology at New York University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He was also a professor at high school John Paul II for Marriage and the Family in Washington, D.C., from 1991 to 2001.

His main areas of interest and research are: personality theory and its integration with Catholic theology and Philosophy ; the nature and historical origin of human consciousness; the importance of parents to the family; how men and women are equal in dignity but different and complementary; the psychology of atheism; the psychology of virtues; identity; hatred and forgiveness. He has recently returned to some of his early work in cognitive psychology, such as models of sequential pattern learning and the study of perceptual images and their pictures.

He has published many articles, essays, chapters, videos, opinion pieces, etc. His books, with the first three translated into other languages, include: Faith of the Orphans: The Psychology of Atheism, 2nd ed; Sigmund Freud's Christian Unconscious; Psychology as Religion: the Cult of Self-Worship, 2nd ed. Censorship: evidence of bias in our children's textbooks; The Self: Beyond the Postmodern Crisis; Modern Art and Modern Science: the Parallel Analysis of Vision.

In addition to this seminar, Paul Vitz gave two other sessions at the University of Navarra: 'The Psychology of Hatred and Forgiveness', at the School of Education and Psychology; and another on the father figure at the lecture series of Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) 'A psychological perspective on social bonds: attachment, parenting, psychotherapy, violence and emotions'.