Philosophical Counseling: Theory and Practice (Hardcover)

One of the central issues that Raabe examines in his book is: How can that fee be ethically justified? In the process of examining this, Raabe provides a broad survey of the field of Philosophical Counseling. Since the field is new, there is little general consensus even as to it's definition. Many of its practitioners use widely differing definitions of Philosophical Counseling in their own work. Raabe offers a critical survey of these various conceptions. Strikingly, Raabe is critical of the "Beyond Method Method" of the movement's founder, Gerd Achenbach.

One man with whom I discussed "Philosophical Counseling - Theory and Practice" said in mock horror, "This is about counseling, not philosophy!" It is about counseling, explicitly and didactically so; the book could serve as an introductory text on counseling, I think. But the book is about philosophy too, for one of Philosophical Counseling's main ideas is that many of the stresses and upsets that people feel grow out of philosophical mistakes or misconceptions.

Philosophical Counseling has a very broad overlap with psychological counseling. Many methods of psychological counseling, such as Cognitive Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, deal extensively with philosophic ideas in their practice. Part of Raabe's task is to find something that would in fact distinguish Philosophical Counseling from other already well established forms of counseling, and also to find a task that Philosophical Counseling can perform better than psychological counseling.

Very broadly, the divide that Raabe finds is the one between therapy and education. Sometimes something is wrong with us; our leg is broken, we're attacked by germs, chemical structures in our brains are upset - these are all clearly medical problems. At other times, we just don't understand right, or we just don't know how to do something; we get wet feet because we don't know the tide is rising, we can't cross the water because we can't find the bridge. These are clearly educational problems. One might imagine a boundary between medicine and education; a place where the influence of the structure of the body blends with the influence of ideas to determine things like our various capabilities, aptitudes and attitudes, as well as our experience of happiness with our existence. One side of that boundary is the terrain of the psychologist, the other side of that boundary is the terrain of the philosopher.

I'm not a philosopher or a counselor, but I found Raabe's book both an interesting read and a wealth of information. I'm not an insider to the growing Philosophical Counseling movement, but I understand that the challenges that Raabe has raised are controversial in many quarters. But as Raabe says, unless the movement can properly and ethically establish just what it's practice is, it will be threatened by charlatans.

And though Gerd Achenbach is credited with "re-instating" the practice of philosophy in the 1980s, his method, or rather, lack of, left some questions unanswered and threatened the viability of the movement.

But a man by the name of Peter Raabe has stepped up to the challenge, answered the remaining questions, cleared up all of the previous confusion, and proven once and for all that there is indeed a method in Philosophical Counselling.

What this book does is prove with reasoned and logical statements that Philosophical Counselling is in fact a viable field, and offers a method that eliminates all of the confusion and incoherence. And Dr. Raabe provides all of this in a clear and interesting style that makes this book a pleasure to read.

But perhaps the reason that this book has become the best source on Philosophical Counselling is that Raabe has researched nearly all of the available sources on the modern PC movement, resulting in a comprehensive and cohesive work.

Raabe starts off with a brief history of PC, and then moves on to some of the definitions that practitioners have offered to explain what PC is. This serves as a good introduction to what is to follow.

Raabe then examines the descriptive accounts of the actual practise of PC, and what is meant by procedure, technique, approach, and method. He reveals that there is disagreement amongst counsellors about whether there is or should be a method in PC.

Naturally, this leads to the question of "what makes Philosophical Counselling different from Psychotherapy?". Raabe answers this question more than adequately, providing ample evidence that PC is indeed different and showing why, in many cases, it works much better in alleviating human suffering.

But the most important chapter of all is the fourth one, in which Raabe provides a new model for PC which eliminates all the confusion and gives counsellors a clear method that is superior from all others that have come before.

I cannot stress how important this new method by Raabe is, it is revolutionary in that it has advanced immensely, in my opinion, the field of PC and has proven once and for all the legitimacy of this practice.

The next chapter gives us a clear definition of what Philosophical Counselling is and puts to rest all of the critics.

Raabe also provides four different case studies with clients, so that the reader can get a good idea of what actually goes on during a counselling session. This is a great addition to the book because it offers the theory on PC, as well as different case studies to demonstrate the practise of PC.

And the four Appendixes at the end of the book are a nice treat, and quite useful even to people who aren't practitioners.

I don't think I need to give you a summary; reading this review should sum up quite nicely my thoughts on this revolutionary and very important book.

But I will say this: whether you are a Philosophical Counsellor, or intend to be, or even have no interest in the field: Read this book!

Philosophical Counselling has been around before most religions, and certainly before psychology and psychotherapy, and exists even today. Wouldn't you like to know why this wonderful field has been helping people improve their lives for thousands of years?