myself
07-18-2006, 04:57 PM
Perspectives - Vol. 2, No. 4 - Metapsychology - Book Reviews
Christian Perring, Ph.D.
Essays on Philosophical Counseling
Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis
Title: Essays on Philosophical Counseling
Author: Ran Lahav and Maria da Venza Tillmanns (editors)
Publisher: Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1995 (Third
Edition, June 1997)
Pages: 208
ISBN: 0 8191 9973 7
Can Philosophy Help?
In David Lodge's 1995 novel, Therapy, TV sitcom writer
Laurence 'Tubby' Passmore goes through a mid-life crisis, so he goes
to a psychotherapist once a week. She is a cognitive behavioral
therapist, specializing in rational emotive therapy, who gives him
writing exercises. These and entries from Passmore's personal journal
constitute the chapters of the book. Passmore's girlfriend has been
seeing a psychiatrist five times a week for years, for full-blown
psychoanalysis. Passmore is skeptical whether this is helping her,
but she eventually comes to a resolution in her life and ends both
her analysis and her relationship with Passmore. This of course
doesn't make him any happier, and it is not clear that his own
therapy is helping him either. What does seem to help is his almost
obsessional absorption in the life and work of Soren Kierkegaard.
Passmore's progress provides one model for how philosophy might help
people.
[...]
So I am very curious about the claims of some philosophers that they
can help people in solving their personal problems. A growing number
of people describe themselves as "philosophical counselors." This
movement started in Europe and Israel, and is now spreading to the
US. It aims to be an alternative or supplement to psychological
therapy.
[...]
The figure of Tubby Passmore, the narrator of David Lodge's novel
Therapy, is a useful one for philosophical counselors to contemplate.
Passmore is a happily married writer of a successful sitcom, but he
is unhappy. He comes by chance on the existentialist thought of
Kierkegaard. Initially it is the titles of his books that attracts
Passmore: Fear and Trembling, The Sickness Unto Death, The Concept of
Dread, and even Either/Or and Repetition. After ploughing through
some of Kierkegaard's turgid prose, he finds some parts that speak
directly to his condition. For example, the unhappy man is "always
absent to himself, never present to himself," always living in the
past or the future. Simply finding a description of his condition
which has previously so perplexed him makes Passmore grin all over
his face. He also becomes interested in Kierkegaard's life, and he
immerses himself in pursuing the connections between his biography
and the philosophy. It's rare for a modern novel to devote a whole
seven pages to setting out of a philosophical exploration, concluding
with an explanation of the role of repetition in a good marriage. But
this also serves a dramatic purpose, since it is after this passage
that Passmore writes in his journal that his wife just came into his
study telling him she wants a separation from him. Lodge pricks the
philosophical balloon, illustrating how easy it is to for real people
to get lost in the consideration of abstract ideas.
Yet it seems that Lodge is not simply lampooning philosophy and its
use as therapy. Passmore goes on to consider his first teenage
romance and realizes that he had callously broken the girl's heart.
It is his reading of Kierkegaard that enables him to come to this
self-realization. He decides to seek her out, and finding her somehow
helps him achieve some resolution to his life. But the end of the
novel, he is much more content with his life. It is far from clear,
however, what it was that helped him. It could have been the writing
exercises he was given by his cognitive-behavioral therapist that
were designed to help him see himself as others saw him, or the
changes in his life that force him to make a new start. Or it could
be his encounter with philosophy. Lodge's novel illustrates the
potential benefits and pitfalls of philosophical counseling, and how
it can be difficult to tell which are which are the benefits and
which are the pitfalls.
Christian Perring, Ph.D.
Essays on Philosophical Counseling
Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis
Title: Essays on Philosophical Counseling
Author: Ran Lahav and Maria da Venza Tillmanns (editors)
Publisher: Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1995 (Third
Edition, June 1997)
Pages: 208
ISBN: 0 8191 9973 7
Can Philosophy Help?
In David Lodge's 1995 novel, Therapy, TV sitcom writer
Laurence 'Tubby' Passmore goes through a mid-life crisis, so he goes
to a psychotherapist once a week. She is a cognitive behavioral
therapist, specializing in rational emotive therapy, who gives him
writing exercises. These and entries from Passmore's personal journal
constitute the chapters of the book. Passmore's girlfriend has been
seeing a psychiatrist five times a week for years, for full-blown
psychoanalysis. Passmore is skeptical whether this is helping her,
but she eventually comes to a resolution in her life and ends both
her analysis and her relationship with Passmore. This of course
doesn't make him any happier, and it is not clear that his own
therapy is helping him either. What does seem to help is his almost
obsessional absorption in the life and work of Soren Kierkegaard.
Passmore's progress provides one model for how philosophy might help
people.
[...]
So I am very curious about the claims of some philosophers that they
can help people in solving their personal problems. A growing number
of people describe themselves as "philosophical counselors." This
movement started in Europe and Israel, and is now spreading to the
US. It aims to be an alternative or supplement to psychological
therapy.
[...]
The figure of Tubby Passmore, the narrator of David Lodge's novel
Therapy, is a useful one for philosophical counselors to contemplate.
Passmore is a happily married writer of a successful sitcom, but he
is unhappy. He comes by chance on the existentialist thought of
Kierkegaard. Initially it is the titles of his books that attracts
Passmore: Fear and Trembling, The Sickness Unto Death, The Concept of
Dread, and even Either/Or and Repetition. After ploughing through
some of Kierkegaard's turgid prose, he finds some parts that speak
directly to his condition. For example, the unhappy man is "always
absent to himself, never present to himself," always living in the
past or the future. Simply finding a description of his condition
which has previously so perplexed him makes Passmore grin all over
his face. He also becomes interested in Kierkegaard's life, and he
immerses himself in pursuing the connections between his biography
and the philosophy. It's rare for a modern novel to devote a whole
seven pages to setting out of a philosophical exploration, concluding
with an explanation of the role of repetition in a good marriage. But
this also serves a dramatic purpose, since it is after this passage
that Passmore writes in his journal that his wife just came into his
study telling him she wants a separation from him. Lodge pricks the
philosophical balloon, illustrating how easy it is to for real people
to get lost in the consideration of abstract ideas.
Yet it seems that Lodge is not simply lampooning philosophy and its
use as therapy. Passmore goes on to consider his first teenage
romance and realizes that he had callously broken the girl's heart.
It is his reading of Kierkegaard that enables him to come to this
self-realization. He decides to seek her out, and finding her somehow
helps him achieve some resolution to his life. But the end of the
novel, he is much more content with his life. It is far from clear,
however, what it was that helped him. It could have been the writing
exercises he was given by his cognitive-behavioral therapist that
were designed to help him see himself as others saw him, or the
changes in his life that force him to make a new start. Or it could
be his encounter with philosophy. Lodge's novel illustrates the
potential benefits and pitfalls of philosophical counseling, and how
it can be difficult to tell which are which are the benefits and
which are the pitfalls.