Emancipatory Therapeutic Practice in a Turbulent Transmodern Era:A Work of Retrieval

Abstract

Within the community of psychotherapists, there has always existed philosophical and methodological tension between objectivists who follow a medical model, romantics who favor humanistic approaches, and social constructivists who take a more sociopolitical path. The current health care crisis is forcing practitioners to take sides, is threatening to unravel this always uneasy coherence among psychotherapists, and is forcing practitioners to revisit questions of epistemology, ethics, and practice. The author argues that as medical insurance funds dwindle and the assessment of "medical necessity" comes increasingly to be defined according to strict patterns of specific "symptoms," and as insurance-allowable treatment becomes restricted to short-term, emergency care or medication-based treatment, humanistic psychologists should restate their commitment to a psychology that approaches the struggles and promises of human life in human terms and should refocus their efforts on quality of life, spiritual, and emancipatory concerns.

What is a good life?

How should we understand the nature of reality?

What is happiness?

What is the nature and meaning of consciousness?

How do relationships, families, and communities thrive?

How should goods and privileges be distributed among people?

What should guide ethical human conduct?

What is our relationship to and responsibility for the natural world?

How can we face pain, loss, and death without losing hope or the will to transcend suffering?

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