Norman Vincent Peale

===Early association with psychiatry===
Following the [[stock market crash of 1929|1929 market crash]], and being presented with congregants with "complex problems" (as Peale would later recount), his wife, [[Ruth Stafford Peale]], counseled him to "fin[d] a psychiatrist who could help parish members," which he did through consultation with his physician, Clarence W. Lieb.<ref name=":0" /> Peale was introduced to a [[Freudian]] who had trained in psychiatry in [[Vienna]], Smiley Blanton, who Peale later recalled as saying, "I've been praying for years that some minister would see that psychiatry and religion... should work together" (in response to being asked about his believing in the "power of prayer").{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The two men wrote books together, notably ''Faith Is the Answer: A Psychiatrist and a Pastor Discuss Your Problems'' (1940). The book was written in alternating chapters, with Blanton writing one chapter, then Peale. Blanton espoused no particular religious point of view in his chapters. In 1951 this clinic of [[psychotherapy]] and religion grew into the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry, with Peale serving as president and Blanton as executive director.<ref>[http://www.answers.com/library/Britannica%20Concise%20Encyclopedia-cid-1792895319 Answers.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119170903/http://www.answers.com/library/Britannica%20Concise%20Encyclopedia-cid-1792895319 |date=January 19, 2012 }}, from ''Britannica Concise Encyclopedia''</ref> Blanton handled difficult psychiatric cases and Peale, who had no mental health credentials, handled religious issues.<ref name=meyer_positive>{{cite book|first=Donald|last=Meyer|title=The Positive Thinkers|url=https://archive.org/details/positivethinkers0000meye_c2l9|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Pantheon Books]]|location=New York City|date=1965|isbn=978-0394738994}}</ref>

When Peale came under heavy criticism from the mental health community for his book ''The Power of Positive Thinking'' (1952), Blanton distanced himself from Peale and refused to publicly endorse the book. Blanton did not allow Peale to use his name in ''The Power of Positive Thinking'' and declined to defend Peale publicly when he came under criticism. As scholar Donald Meyer describes it: "Peale evidently imagined that he marched with Blanton in their joint labors in the Religio-psychiatric Institute. This was not exactly so.":<ref name=meyer_positive/> 266  Meyer notes that Blanton's own book, Love or Perish (1956), "contrasted so distinctly at so many points with the Peale evangel" of "positive thinking" that these works had virtually nothing in common.:<ref name=meyer_positive/> 273