This page serves to introduce the theorists that largely inform how I approach the therapeutic relationship and the modalities I use with my clients. I also offer a list of resources below.
About Terruwe and Baars
Dr. Anna Terruwe and Dr. Conrad Baars were two 20th century Dutch Catholic psychiatrists who integrated Catholic spirituality and the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas into their conceptualization and treatment of what we now explore in anxiety, depression, trauma, OCD, scrupulosity, unwanted sexual behaviors, and attachment wounds - to name a few.
Anna A. Terruwe, MD, PhD (1911-2004) & Conrad W. Baars, MD (1919-1981)
While Anna Terruwe practiced in the Netherlands until her death in 2004, Conrad Baars worked in the United States after being liberated from a Nazi concentration camp in which he was detained for his noncombatant service with the Dutch resistance. Upon discovering Terruwe in the 1950s during a return trip to the Netherlands, he began learning from her, translating her works, and promoting her theories until weeks before his death in 1981.
Terruwe and Baars offer a Thomistic approach to the relationship between the intellect, reason, will, and emotions in understanding normal human flourishing and suffering. Deviating from the prominence of Freud’s approach to emotional repression, they incorporated Thomistic teachings on the emotions into their theory with the principle that the emotions are meant to be guided by reason. One can find in paragraphs 1762 though 1775 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church this same teaching.
Terruwe and Baars are also well known for what they called the frustration or deprivation neurosis, a syndrome that develops from the lack of affirming love from caregivers that results in deep-seated feelings of insecurity, inferiority, inadequacy, low self-worth, and unlovableness which manifest throughout adulthood. This need, either left unmet or met inconsistently (think attachment theory), leaves one feeling deprived of the experience of oneself as being lovable and good, resulting in a frustrated need that moves one to find in unaffirming ways the very affirmation they lack. Their theory around this phenomenon Pope St. Paul VI called “a gift to the Church” following the presentation Terruwe and Baars gave to the 1971 Synod of Bishops on the crisis in the priesthood (published as an article here).
For more on the life and work of Terruwe and Baars, consider reading the 2024 article “The impact of Anna Terruwe on the work of Conrad Baars.”
Terruwe and Baars Resources
Below is an incomplete list of books and articles by Terruwe and Baars.
I have also included a list of articles written by contemporary professionals and theologians.
Note on Original vs. Revised Book Editions
I prefer using the original versions of the books listed below. You can find on Amazon the revised editions published in the early 2000s by Dr. Suzanne Baars, the daughter of Conrad Baars. These editions make changes to the terms Terruwe and Baars used in a way I believe may detract from the conceptualization and treatment Terruwe and Baars envisioned. Suzanne Baars acknowledges using the terms “emotional deprivation disorder” (in place of deprivation/frustration neurosis) and “affirmation therapy” – terms that Terruwe and Baars did not use – in an effort to appeal to modern diagnostics currently at large beginning with the DSM-III in 1980.
The medical model upon which DSM diagnostics revolve deviates from the psychoanalytic nosology Terruwe and Baars used in favor of a system that focuses on behavioral symptoms and mental states at the expense of the meaning and value within a person’s identity, experiences, and suffering. I do not find it helpful to reduce Terruwe and Baars’ theory into a system that neither helps mental health professionals help people nor assists professionals in meaningfully communicating with one another about a client.
Concerning “emotional deprivation disorder” – the deprivation/frustration neurosis develops from a lack of affirmation; which is intellectual, spiritual, moral and emotional. Affirmation is not just emotional. One does not develop this neurosis from a lack of emotional affirmation alone.
Concerning “affirmation therapy” – to my knowledge, Terruwe and Baars use this phrase one time in the 1976 version of Healing the Unaffirmed. They write that “affirmation therapy is not a method or a way of doing things” (p. 119). In the 1979 version of Feeling and Healing Your Emotions, Baars mentions affirmation therapy only once as a criticism of self-affirming people (p. 175).
I do defer to Suzanne Baars given her intellectual inheritance of her father’s work and her leading efforts to make Terruwe and Baars accessible to modern audiences. I am also grateful for her support toward me in promoting Terruwe and Baars.
Books
You can find these on Abebooks.com and other used book retailers for usually $5-10.
Born Only Once (Baars, 1975)
Healing the Unaffirmed (Baars & Terruwe, 1976)
Feeling and Healing Your Emotions (Baars, 1979)
Psychic Wholeness and Healing (Terruwe & Baars, 1981)
Doctor of the Heart (Baars, 1996)
Articles for Listening and Download
These I offer for quick download with YouTube recordings at Articles for Listening and Download.
Baars (1971). The psychiatrist – Friend or foe of the pregnant woman? The Linacre Quarterly
(38)4, 261–263.
Baars (1972). The role of the Church in the causation, treatment, and prevention of the crisis in
the priesthood. The Linacre Quarterly, (39)1, 49–61.
Baars (1982). Psychic wholeness and healing for the family. The Linacre Quarterly, (49)4, 346–
Harder to Find Books
Aumann, J. & Baars, C. W. (1991) The unquiet heart: Reflections on love and sexuality. Alba House.
Terruwe, A.A.A. (1958). Psychopathic personality and neurosis (C. W. Baars, Trans.). P.J. Kenedy &
Sons. (Original work published in 1955)
Terruwe, A. A. A. (1959). The priest and the sick of mind (C. W. Baars, Trans. J. Aumann, Ed.).
Burns & Oates. (Original work published in 1955)
Terruwe, A.A.A. (1960). The neurosis in the light of rational psychology (C. W. Baars, Trans. J.
Aumann, Ed.). P.J. Kenedy & Sons. (Original work published in 1954)
Terruwe, A. A. A. (1968). Emotional growth in marriage (D. Kirmse, Trans.). Paulist Press.
(Original work published in 1958)
Terruwe, A. A. A. (1970). The abode of love (R. C. Ware, Trans.). Abbey Press. (Original work
published in 1967)
Terruwe, A. A. A., & Baars, C. W. (1972). Loving and curing the neurotic. Arlington House.
Contemporary Resources on Terruwe and Baars
Calatrava, M. & Zapata, R. (2024). The loving experience of the therapeutic relationship as a
factor in affective maturation in adults. Integratus, 2(1), 88–98.
https://doi.org/10.1521/intg.2024.2.1.88
Drabbant, P. (2025). Conrad W. Baars and Anna A. Terruwe’s therapies for wounded
clergy. Integratus 3(2), 155–178. https://doi.org/10.1521/intg.2025.3.2.155
Giertych, W. (2024). A theological appraisal of the works of Anna A. Terruwe and Conrad W.
Baars. Integratus, 2(2), 123–146. https://doi.org/10.1521/intg.2024.2.2.123
Graves, J. (2012, May 21). Remembering Catholic psychiatrist Conrad Baars: Sue Baars reflects
on her father’s contributions to psychiatry and the Church. National Catholic Register.
https://www.ncregister.com/news/remembering-catholic-psychiatrist-conrad-baars
Lisier, C. S. (2024). Narration of the experience of emotional deprivation disorder and
affirmation therapy. Integratus, 2(3), 248–271. https://doi.org/10.1521/intg.2024.2.3.248
Lipska, A. (2019). Psychic wholeness in the context of Anna Terruwe and Conrad Baars’
theory of repressive neuroses. Studia Psychologica: Theoria et Praxis, 19(2), 55–66.
https://doi.org/10.21697/sp.2019.19.2.03
Mazzone, J. (2024). The impact of Anna Terruwe on the work of Conrad Baars. Integratus, 2(1),
65–87. https://doi.org/10.1521/intg.2024.2.1.65
Mullady, B. (2022). St. Thomas Aquinas rescues modern psychology. EWTN Publishing.
Ryan, G. (2017). The rectitude of mortification therapy for the spiritual care of sexually afflicted.
(Publication No. 1. 1839) [Doctoral dissertation, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas].
Sutton, P. (2007). Chastity as the fruit of “genuine affirmation”: Reflections on the work of Anna
Terruwe, Conrad Baars, and John Paul II. In K. D. Whitehead (Ed.), The Catholic marriage and
family (pp. 173–196). St. Augustine’s Press.
Prayer of Abandonment
“Abandonment alone guides me, I have no other compass” (St. Therese of Lisieux).
God my Father,
I thank you for all that you are
and all that you do for me through your Son, Jesus.
In Jesus’ name, Father,
I place myself entirely in your care.
I hand over to you my self –
my mind, memory, will, emotions, body, sexuality.
I hand over to you every person in my life,
every situation, every relationship, every concern.
I trust you to care for me and others in the most loving way.
As I have emptied myself, and handed everything over to you,
I ask you, Father, to now fill me with your Holy Spirit
and all the gifts and fruits of that Spirit.
I ask this through Jesus, your Son, and my brother,
in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dr. Conrad Baars (1919-1981)
