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Philosophical Counselling |
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At our May meeting the group were treated to an immensely interesting talk by our newest member, Sam Brown, PhD in Philosophy and a philosophical counsellor. We heard him expand on the methods by which people facing difficulties in their lives can be helped by those trained this new type of counselling. Counsellors do not challenge the views of clients, rather they urge a balance of representation. He illustrated how the counsellor's approach is frequently initially misunderstood, and that new clients normally arrive ready to talk about a particular issue of concern, and assume that the session will be an exercise in testing their defence of the view they already hold, and can be flummoxed when the counsellor keeps side-stepping, or coaxes them on until they end up in an absurdity.
Sam pointed out that philosophical counselling should not be seen as a debate. To debate is to take up a particular point-of-view and defend it against alternatives, with the aim of persuading someone that you are right. Philosopher counsellors don’t coach in rhetorical techniques, as the Greek Sophists once did. Indeed if they detect argumentative rhetoric they try to dissemble it, like an intellectual massage to get out muscular knots or a talking therapy to alleviate neurosis. Socrates (and Jesus) made the mistake of deconstructing emotive opinions, making important people feel foolish, and was put to death for it. Instead of a counter-argument, a philosophical counsellor uses Socratic dialogue - questioning to tease out absurdities or inconsistencies. It can be illustrated that conflicting perspectives can be held by equally intelligent and moral people, and that everyone would benefit from understanding the alternative views as genuinely moral and defensible positions. It does not help to portray them as unreasonable or wicked caricatures.
In a counselling session, the counsellor would switch to a less controversial or sensitive issue (such as politics in Northern Ireland, the US or the Middle East) or a classical philosophical problem (such as the nature of truth or morality, or the existence of God). That would allow him to draw out the benefits of philosophical analysis, before returning to the hot topic and applying the same method. As a benchmark of progress, the initial arguments can then be revisited in retrospect, and the problematic patterns are much easier to see. This process can, it seems, turn out to be amazingly therapeutic. The client may well return to exactly the same position at the end, but with a greater understanding, which is often enough to resolve the associated emotional difficulty.
Sam also addressed the issue of emotions overwhelming philosophical thought, quoting Hume, "Reason is, and ought to be, the slave of the passions”. Good practical philosophy engages the emotions and tries to harmonise them, he explained. It is not about the intellect controlling the emotions, but about using the intellect wisely to ensure that some emotions do not eclipse others. That is arguably why it evolved, according to the Darwinian view. Recent research in psychology indicates that rational judgement breaks down when emotions are omitted from personal decision-making.
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