The sick soul

Maimonides (Rambam), in his Shemonah Perakim (“Eight Chapters”), the introduction to Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Fathers), describes some fundamental ideas regarding the human soul and ethics. An important image he uses therein is that of the sick soul (nefesh cholah).

Rambam compares moral or spiritual deviations to physical illnesses. Just as a body can become ill and require treatment, so too can the soul become ill and require healing. He explains here that the soul, like the body, experiences healthy and unhealthy states.

A healthy soul is in balance: desires, emotions, and intellect function in harmony. A sick soul, on the other hand, is out of balance. The desires are excessive or misdirected. For example, someone may show too much anger, have too much pride, or conversely have too little sense of honor or courage.

A few examples: Someone who is excessively stingy resembles someone with a physical abnormality who does not taste well: his moral “sense” is impaired. Someone who is excessively angry suffers from a mental illness that requires treatment, just as a physically ill person needs therapy.

The therapy according to Rambam resembles that of a doctor.

Recognize the deviation. You must therefore realize which trait has become unbalanced. To heal, one must temporarily move to the opposite extreme.

1. Someone who is too proud should practice humility.

2. Someone who is too stingy should temporarily become very generous.

3. Then return to the center.

The ideal state is the middle way. (derech haemtzait, the golden mean)

This is the moral health of the soul. The “sick soul” in Rambam is therefore not a mystical or supernatural state, but an ethical and psychological imbalance. And man is capable of restoring himself and improving himself. He can work on his own Tikkun.

For him (Rambam), morality is a form of spiritual medicine. The wise man is like a physician of the soul, who has knowledge of the right measure and the means to restore it.

(If you would like to read these eight chapters yourself, you can easily look them up on the Sefaria website.)

Written by Marco Verhaar

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