[Home]History of Philosophical counseling

HomePage | Recent Changes | Preferences

Revision 2 . . October 21, 2001 4:34 am by Larry Sanger [Adding article that was e-mailed to me; see /Talk]
Revision 1 . . (edit) June 8, 2001 9:34 am by KoyaanisQatsi
  

Difference (from prior major revision) (no other diffs)

Changed: 1c1,9
An increasingly popular application for philosophy is in counseling. There's a whole pile of resources at:
An increasingly popular application for philosophy is in counseling?.
It is commonly held that so-called philosophical counseling began in 1981
when Dr. Gerd Achenbach opened his practice near Cologne, Germany. Today
there are philosophical counselors, professional associations, and
certification programs in the Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Austria,
France, Switzerland, Israel, Great Britain, the United States, and many
other countries. But the idea that philosophy can be used to alleviate
distress, help individuals come to a better understanding of themselves
and their world, and improve a person's life dates back to antiquity.

Changed: 3c11,18
http://www.towson.edu/~kealey/philcounsel.html
More than two thousand years ago Epicurus characterized
philosophy as "therapy of the soul." He maintained that the arguments
made by a philosopher are just empty if they do not relieve any human
suffering. The Stoics also made it clear that philosophy is not merely
the memorization of abstract theories or the exegesis of texts, but
learning the art of living well. Socrates used philosophy not to teach
concepts but to encourage his discussion partners to examine their
thinking and attitudes about almost every issue imaginable.

Changed: 5c20,25


Descartes and Spinoza saw philosophy as the "practice of wisdom."
Nietzsche complained that philosophy had degenerated into a boring
academic pursuit. He was waiting for a "philosopher physician" who would
muster the courage "to risk the proposition: That what was at stake in
all philosophizing up to this point was not at all truth but something
else--let us say, health, future, growth, power, life."

Changed: 7c27,168
See Philosophy
The twentieth century's most influential philosopher, Ludwig
Wittgenstein, asked rhetorically, "What is the use of studying
philosophy if all it does for you is to enable you to talk with some
plausibility about some abstruse questions in logic, etc., and if it
does not improve your thinking about the important questions of everyday
life?" John Dewey, the highly regarded American philosopher of
education, wrote earlier this century that philosophy would show its
true value "only when it ceases to be a device for dealing with the
problems of philosophers and becomes a method, cultivated by
philosophers, for dealing with the problems of men." Philosophical
counselors have willingly accepted the challenge to take philosophy out
of the lecture hall and present it to the real world.

Simply put, philosophical counseling consists of a trained
philosopher helping an individual deal with a problem or an issue that
is of concern to that individual. Philosophical counselors know that the
majority of people are quite capable of resolving most of their problems
on a day-to-day basis either by themselves or with the help of
significant others. It is when problems become too complex--as, for
example, when values seem to conflict, when facts appear contradictory,
when reasoning about a problem becomes trapped within a circle, or when
life seems unexpectedly meaningless--that a trained philosopher can be of
greater help than the average friend or family member.

The philosophical counselor often deals with individuals who are
dissatisfied with other forms of counseling they have had. She sees
individuals whose minds are sound but whose thinking is confused or
obstructed. The philosophical counselor understands that most
individuals live by many unexamined (rather than unconscious)
assumptions and values that can affect thinking and behavior in puzzling
or distressing ways. She also sees a person's thinking as being informed
by childhood experiences but not determined by them. Through a series of
dialogues the philosophical counselor helps the client come to an
awareness of hidden biases, unspoken assumptions, and conflicting values
that may be preventing an inquiry into alternative perspectives that
could help to ease the problem. For example, while a psychotherapist may
search a client's subconscious for the causes of a client's distress
over a career decision that must be made, the philosophical counselor
will help the client conduct a conceptual examination of the many issues
surrounding such a decision.

It could be argued that this type of intellectual counseling
neglects the emotions and feelings, or what psychologists call the
affective domain. But philosophers know that feelings and emotions are
not simply irrational events that a person must suffer. John Locke
characterized the emotions, which he called the passions, as ideas in
our minds that come from both our sensations and reflections. A number
of eminent philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Hobbes,
Aquinas, and Sartre, have argued that an emotion does not simply erupt
from the dark unconscious but that it is set in motion by a perception,
a certain way of apprehending the world. Consequently, a negative
feeling or an emotion about oneself, for example, can be changed by
means of a critical examination of one's perception of oneself, and
one's apprehension of the world and one's place in it.

But the philosophical counselor's aim is not simply to resolve a
client's immediate problem and then send him on his way. The
philosophical counselor also offers to educate the client in more
effective ways of thinking so that if a problem arises again the client
will be better able to deal with it on his own. The philosophical
counselor is concerned with both the mitigation of problems and their
prevention. She is therefore both a counselor and a teacher, helping the
client to think clearly about the issue at hand while at the same time
giving the client the tools that will improve his thinking in future. In
this way the philosophical counselor ensures that individuals who have
come to her for counseling will not become dependent on her to solve all
similar problems in future.

Granted, cognitive approaches in psychotherapy such as R.E.B.T,
logotherapy, and existential psychotherapy seem to already be doing some
of what philosophical counseling claims to do. These psychotherapies are
admittedly based on a philosophical type of inquiry into the client's
reasoning. But these approaches were developed in the 1950's when
psychologists were the only ones interested in the practice of
counseling. Today there are a growing number of philosophers willing to
work with individuals outside of the traditional academic setting --
philosophers very skilled at actively listening, at separating large
masses of information into manageable pieces and putting them all back
together again, and at spotting inconsistencies, contradictions, and
other problems in a person's reasoning style.

A philosopher, in order to become a philosophical counselor, must
have achieved at least a Master's degree in philosophy. The aspiring
philosophical counselor will often focus his studies on practical or
applied philosophy. Because of this he will be far better qualified to
deal with specifically philosophical issues such as the meaning of life
or questions of right and wrong than the therapist whose education has
been predominantly in psychology. In other words, he will be experienced
in discussing existential and ethical issues for which most
psychotherapists have no training whatsoever.

Many philosophical counselors are hesitant to call philosophical
counseling "therapy." This is because the philosophical counselor,
unlike his psychotherapeutic counterpart, does not diagnose his clients
according to some ready-made normative ideals about normalcy, mental
health, self-understanding, or psychic well-being. Neither does he offer
the sort of therapy that expects the client to passively receive
treatment. But this does not mean that philosophical counseling is not
therapeutic in its effect. Wittgenstein saw philosophy as having a
practical use in "untying the knots in our thinking," or what he
considered the treatment of "intellectual disease." The philosophical
methods required for untying these troublesome knots he called
"therapies." Therapy in the philosophical sense comes from the client^̉s
increased understanding, self-awareness, and feeling of well-being^×all
products of a careful exploration, in tandem with a skilled philosopher,
of herself and the world around her.

To undertake such an exploration some philosophical counselors
prefer to use the reasoning of a single philosopher or philosophical
system. But most take a more eclectic approach, knowing that
specialization in one area of philosophy restricts a counselor's
effectiveness when his client's problems or concerns shift over time.
The key to philosophical counseling generally is its client-centered and
open-ended nature, one which does not manipulate the client's thinking
so as to bring him to accept some particular philosophy as the "Truth."
The philosophical counselor's intention is to help his client reach any
reasonable and morally permissible goal the client has set for herself.

Apart from being of great help to the average person,
philosophical counseling can also be of immense value to professional
psychotherapists. After all, philosophy is the foundation upon which all
other fields of thought are based. Philosophy is not simply the
transmission of a body of knowledge; it is the act of constantly
improving one's understanding by means of thinking and discussion.
Philosophers have an extraordinarily rich repertoire of theoretical
perspectives at their disposals and therefore are especially adept at
seeing the implications and assumptions behind the theories guiding all
of the various approaches to psychological therapy. The philosophical
counselor is well prepared to facilitate an inquiry into both the
content and the process of reasoning that may have resulted in either
professional or personal difficulties for the psychotherapist.

While the adage that the unexamined life is not worth living is
somewhat of an exaggeration, it is certainly true that the examination
of a life by means of philosophical counseling can lead to the living of
a better life.

External links:
* [a whole pile of resources]
* [Website of Peter B. Raabe, Ph.D., author of an early version of the above article]

/Talk?

HomePage | Recent Changes | Preferences
Search: