CBT and the 2 Thieves: Regret for the Past and Fear of the Future, as per Charles Fulton Oursler

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A long-time patient—who was also a published poet—asked me if anyone ever told me about regrets that whirl around and around in their mind, like a whirlpool that threatens to suck them in and drown them. I immediately answered, “Yes,” even though I had never heard anyone describe that perception as poetically as he. Yet he was a poet, and most people are not poets and are not able to express their thoughts so eloquently. But ruminations about past indiscretions, opportunities not taken, or poorly made decisions, are remarkably common, particularly among people with incompletely treated depression and those with obsessive tendencies.

Given that this patient was a poet, his confession reminded me of related words that are widely attributed to a fellow writer: Charles Fulton Oursler. That quote recollects our contemporary practice of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), as well as mindfulness, to some degree.

According to Oursler, “Many of us crucify ourselves between 2 thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future.”

Before examining this quote and its context, let us ask ourselves an important preliminary question: who was this Oursler, and why were his perceptive words relevant both then and now?

Let us not confuse Charles Fulton Oursler, the author, with Sir William Osler (1849-1919), a much-quoted Canadian doctor who was 1 of the “Big 4” founding fathers of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and whose name is familiar to many physicians, or at least to those of us of a certain age.

I suspect that far fewer of us are familiar with author, reporter, and playwright Charles Fulton Oursler (1893-1952), who penned the featured quote and authored many books, some of which became movies. He was best known as a detective story and mystery writer, even though his writing took a religious turn later in life.

Oursler’s book, The Greatest Story Ever Told: A Tale of the Greatest Life Ever Lived (Doubleday, 1949) was the first of a trilogy about the life of Jesus. The first book became a film with a shorter title, The Greatest Story Ever Told (Stevens, 1965). Earlier in his career, Oursler joined Harry Houdini’s fight against false mediumship and turned his childhood passion for stage magic into a book about Spirit Mediums Exposed(Macfadden Publications, 1930).

Oursler’s quote has obvious religious references, although this idiom about crucifixion has entered everyday American English, where it is typically stripped of its original Christian connotations (except when used in religious contexts). Theoretically, Oursler could have spoken of self-sabotage without reminding us that we crucify ourselves. However, psychological expressions such as self-sabotage were not as commonplace then as they are now, and this more contemporary expression would strip his sentence of the power it gains by evoking an image and adding an allegory. As for the 2 thieves he alludes to, that metaphor is equally apt. Like thieves, cognitive distortions about the past or the future steal the joy of the moment and rob us of our appreciation of the present.

Knowing more about Oursler’s life story, we should not be surprised to see religious inspirations in his writings. Oursler converted from the Baptist faith of his youth and adopted Roman Catholicism later in life. He became preoccupied with Christian ethics in the late 1930s, as Nazi and Communist threats loomed. Moreover, Oursler specifically strived to familiarize readers with the story of Jesus’ life (and death). He was surprised that few individuals he encountered knew much about the historical Jesus described in the gospels. His expressed goal in writing The Greatest Story Ever Told was to "try and make [the gospels] as interesting as a serial story in a popular magazine."¹ His background in writing mysteries qualified him for this task.

In psychiatry today, we religiously (pun intended) avoid imposing our faith (or lack of it) on our patients (or on our colleagues or students), even though it is no longer taboo to avoid religious references altogether, as it was when Freud’s influence was far stronger and his antireligious sentiment, as expressed in The Future of an Illusion (1927) and more indirectly in Moses and Monotheism (1937), held greater sway for the psychiatric community.

Out of respect for those who do not share our religious (or areligious) beliefs, we secularize useful ideas with religious origins. We can find many such examples in our everyday language, such as, “it is not set in stone,” which references the immutable 10 Commandments inscribed on stone, or “the gospel truth,” which invokes the Gospel stories to emphasize the veracity of a statement.

Today, we would disclose sectarian religious origins, to ensure that we do not suggest that everyone accepts our religious views. When we cannot remove religious references completely without forfeiting the meaning of a quote, as is the case here, we can explain how that quote was coined and who coined it.

That is what I propose we do with the quote that is commonly attributed to Oursler, “Many of us crucify ourselves between 2 thieves—regret for the past and fear of the future.”This concept is too good to overlook. It is a 1 sentence summary of CBT—it encapsulates common cognitive distortions and automatic thoughts that we strive to override via CBT. It also mirrors many of the objectives of the increasingly popular mindfulness techniques.

In CBT, we educate patients about maladaptive thoughts, such as jumping to conclusions, over generalizing, magnifying or minimizing, catastrophizing, or personalizing. By categorizing their distressing thought patterns, our patients can gain control over their reflexive ideas. They then learn to rebut cognitive distortions before fossilizing those distortions and believing them to be factual.

I am not implying that we should forego discussion of the other cognitive distortions that are commonly used in CBT-style therapy by substituting this single phrase. However, I am convinced that this “CBT Made Simple” sentence can speak to people from diverse backgrounds and offset 1 common shortcoming of CBT: the failure to do homework.

As teachers learned long ago, many therapists have come to realize that patients can forget their CBT homework assignments where they list maladaptive ideas. If we can give them 1 sentence to remember, to help them along the way, how much easier it will be for all of us!

Still, there are caveats to consider, even if we affirm the value of “living in the now,” as Oursler implies, and as mindfulness recommends. A complete disregard for the consequences of current actions could invite unfortunate results. By refusing to learn from past mistakes, we risk repeating them. Yet ruminating about errors or omissions and mentally replaying them like a broken tape recorder does not undo them, but only makes the present unpleasant.

Perhaps it is time to reconsider Oursler’s quote.

Dr Packer is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, New York.

References

1. O’Brien, J. The Road to Damascus: the spiritual pilgrimage of fifteen converts to Catholicism. Doubleday & Company; 1950.