Was Confession just a way to get people to reveal their secrets

this was a major cause for secularization in Latin America, the parish priest would know everything about you because your wife "confessed"

>>1788464

That, and to cement the infantilisation of the faithful.That whole "father" and "child" dynamic is not a healthy one for two adults.

It's literally just proto clinical psychology.

Christianity itself is just a ruse to steal our souls.

>Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (James)

Confession as a general, tell someone guilty feelings, other person prays for your general well being. It don't have to be a priest, because only God and whoever you have grievances against can truly forgive you.

>>1788544
Pagans talked to trusted seniors that way as well. The problem is you are looking through it from an egalitarian lens, which is pretty new, and seeing an unequal social relationship between two adults as unhealthy. But elders of authority were always considered superiors until the egalitarian movement.

Ironically, your idea that it's unhealthy, is direct outgrowth of the modern development of Confession, and by that I mean psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, and so on.

>>1788592
>and so on

>>1788464
Maybe it was.
On the other hand divulgence is a naturally occurring social activity in humans. It comes with it's own social principles and etiquette along with specific neurological responses. In short when done right it makes you feel good. The confession COULD have been conceived of benevolence.
See:
>>1788550

>>1788718
Would you be Catholic if Zizek was your priest?

>>1788464
people don't plan this fucking shit

It also stems from the need people have to externalize their inward lives. Talk therapy and psychoanalysis are effective for this reason, not to mention just having a heart to heart with someone.

Obviously if your priest is shitty and starts blackmailing or gossiping then yeah it sucks. But the idea was that your priest would be there to listen to whatever you needed to say, pray, and leave the judgement to God.

Imagine you fucked your best friend's wife, you can't tell anybody in your life in case it comes back to one of them and shit hits the fan. But your priest is, so you think, trained and divinely sanctioned to listen without judgement and allow you to get it off your chest. Not a wholly negative concept.

>>1788910
>and starts blackmailing or gossiping
They would get defrocked for disclosing anything under the seal of confession. That's what that movie Calvary is about, when the guy tells the priest he's going to kill him.

>>1788592
>Ironically, your idea that it's unhealthy, is direct outgrowth of the modern development of Confession, and by that I mean psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, and so on.
Voluntarily engaging in a practice for the purposes of one's own health is quite a bit different from being forced to do so on pain of being ostracized.