ABSTRACT
How might philosophy enrich the practice of psychotherapy? This book will offer several suggestions. It is neither exhaustive nor systematic, trusting that illustrations of what can follow when a range of philosophical and therapeutic starting points are taken up will inspire other experiments of this kind. While the richness of psychotherapeutic ideas in general, and psychoanalytic theory in particular, have attracted a good deal of philosophical interest, this book is informed by practical values and concerns. Philosophical critiques of psychotherapy that fail to understand what its practitioners do, tend to take issue with models of psychotherapy which are incomplete or outdated. The present book takes several statements as granted: that psychotherapy is valued by many whose lives it has changed; that it must continue to evolve because of changing needs rather than prescriptive pronouncements; and that its practitioners will need new tools to enhance their ability to live and function in an ever shifting climate.
