socrates and psychotherapy

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Socrates and PsychotherapyAuthor(s): August G. LagemanSource: Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Fall, 1989), pp. 219-223Published by: SpringerStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27506024.

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Journal of Religion and Health Volume 28, No. 3, Fall 1989

Socrates andPsychotherapy

AUGUST G. LAGEMANABSTRACT: This article examines the basic philosophical ideas of Socrates and how these ideasform a basic part of the philosophical foundation of psychotherapy. His influence is analyzed byobserving how Kierkegaard and Nietzsche view his contribution. The controversial thesis of I.F.Stone's recent book, The Trial of Socrates, is used to re-examine the man and his philosophy.

Socrates (470-399 B.C.) is regarded as the hinge ofWestern philosophy. Philosophers prior to his time are called pre-Socrates. Socrates turned the focusof philosophy from the physical world to the human, particularly the moral.Socrates is both the most influential and controversial figure in Greek philosophy.

There are four basic aspects to Socrates' contribution to philosophicalthought. The first is his concept of knowing oneself. Socrates recognized thedifficulty and importance of self-knowledge, of understanding one's own nature. To him, this knowledge had primarily a moral dimension. The leastgenerally accepted idea originating with Socrates is his equating of knowledge with goodness. Socrates believed that no man wills to do wrong and thatevil is a result of ignorance. Socrates next asserted that an unexamined lifeis not worth living. He argued that the role of philosophy is to assist a personin reflecting on his or her own life. This capacity for rational reflection hasbecome one of the primary definitions of the task of philosophy.Socrates focused philosophy on moral and axiological issues. He searched tounderstand arete, virtue, and his basic question became, Can virtue betaught? Finally, Socrates' mode of philosophical thinking became known asthe Socratic method. He probed and searched for definitions and presuppositions. His method involved a cross-examination (elenchus). This method issometimes called the maieutic method, connoting Socrates as a midwife assisting in the birth process. Socrates saw himself as a catalyst in the searchfor truth. Others saw him as a gadfly, stinging and awakening his fellowcitizens from their ignorance and complacency.There are, in effect, two distinct yet inseparable pictures that emerge of

The Rev. August G. Lageman, Ph.D., is the Director of the Harford Pastoral Counseling Service in Bel Air, Maryland. He teaches moral philosophy at Notre Dame College in Baltimore,Maryland.

219 ? 1989 Institutes orReligion and Health

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Socrates. The first involves his life and teachings, while the second portrayshis trial and death where he appears at the center of a tragic drama. Plato focused on the trial of Socrates in four of his dialogues?Euthyphro, Apology,Crito, and Phaedo. In these dialogues Socrates is presented as a man with thecourage of his convictions when faced with death. Through Plato's eyes,Socrates has become the major philosophical saint of Western philosophy.There is a recurring problem, however, in that Socrates left no writings forposterity. It is not possible to form a clear picture of him apart from Plato'sportrait (there are other pictures of Socrates in the works of Xenophon, Aristophanes, and Aristotle). There exists here a fascinating parallel in the history of thought, namely the quest for the historical Socrates and the quest forthe historical Jesus. Richard Chessick describes the issue.

The most extreme view of the problem of depicting the real Socrates is presentedby the famous twentieth-century philosopher and psychiatrist Jaspers (1962)who described Socrates as a sort of projection figure for men of each epoch.Albert Schweitzer once said that it is easier to get a historical picture of Jesusthan Socrates because the descriptions of Jesus were made by men of simplelearning and were clear cut, whereas our sources about Socrates . . . are educated and imaginative authors, each of whom adds his own twist to the description. Thus Jaspers feels that to get a true historical picture of Socrates isimpossible; one gets only conflicting images. He writes in The Great Philoso

phers, After studying the tradition, each of us retains an image of Socrates. . . .Though our picture of him may lack scientific precision, he stands compellinglybefore our eyes with all the captivating power of his human personality. It is impossible not to form an image of the historic Socrates. What ismore, some imageof Socrates is indispensable to our philosophical thinking. Perhaps we may saythat no philosophical thought is possible unless Socrates is present, if only as apale shadow. The way in which a man experiences Socrates is fundamental tohis thinking. 1

Chessick and I both disagree with Jaspers's pessimism about the possibility of developing a clear picture of the historical Socrates and knowing whathe believed. The debate continues, as do the images and ideas of the man.

The basic ideas of Socrates continue to be fundamental to the philosophicalquest. Largely through the writings of Plato, Socrates has become a symbolof freedom, individuality, and courage.

Kierkegaard's view of SocratesKierkegaard entitled his master's thesis The Concept of Irony with ConstantReference to Socrates. Irony for Kierkegaard is the principle of infinite abstract negative subjectivity. It is the capacity to say no as an expression ofhuman freedom. Kierkegaard resonates with Socrates' no-saying to the



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Athenians. To Kierkegaard, Socrates is the archetype of the ethical man withhis unrelenting moral passion. He is the prototype of selfhood?the single individual. Kierkegaard sees three steps as basic in human life: the aesthetic,the moral, and the religious. To him, Socrates epitomizes not only the moralbut also the human rational capacity that pursues truth. Kierkegaard valuesSocrates' limits in this regard. Kierkegaard concludes that Socrates is a wiseman because he knows the difference between what he knows and what hedoesn't know.

Nietzsche's view of Socrates

Nietzsche's view of Socrates is filled with ambiguity and complexity. Nietzsche never ceased to be involved in a highly complicated, deeply equivocal relationship, a figure who prompted by very different means and with catastrophic results for his person though not for his character, exactly the samerange of reactions?the figure of Socrates. 2 Alexander Nehamas recognizesthat Nietzsche through his love and hate of the man confirms Socrates' importance in the history of Western thought. Envious of Socrates and his position in the history of thought, he attacks him throughout his writings,though he knows that in doing so he is endowing his enemy with yet anotherdimension, and that he is therefore giving Socrates his greatest gift, which isto make him still more important and influential than he has already been,and the subject of even more writing than before. 3

Nietzsche's love and hate create in him a profound ambiguity toward Socrates. Neitzsche is adopting the Socratic dialectic?questioning and searching for hidden presuppositions. Nietzsche is attempting to re-experience thespirit of Socrates. Yet Nietzsche hates the victory of reason that he seesin Socrates' thought. Nietzsche describes Socrates as a villain, yet he regards himself as another Socrates and models Ecce Homo after Socrates andGoethe. Nietzsche admires Socrates because he sees him as a passionate manin control of these passions. Nietzsche understands and agrees with Socrates'desire not to have disciples. Both men share a strong desire to understandvirtue, although they differ in their definitions of its nature. Nietzsche viewsSocrates as applying a knife vivisectionally to the virtues of his time in anattempt to uncover hypocrisy and deceit. To Nietzsche, Socrates played therole of the buffoon who made others take him seriously and thus was able toengage others in discussions of his passionate concerns.

LF. Stone's The Trial of SocratesIn The Trial of Socrates, LF. Stone maintains that there is a fundamentalconflict between Socrates and the people of Athens. Stone argues that So



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crates saw the Athenians as a herd that required a shepherd or King, andthat subsequently Socrates treated democracy with condescension and contempt. The Athenians saw man as a political animal in the governing policies of the state. Socrates, disagreeing with this view, withdrew from politicallife. Stone moves on to criticize Socrates' thought. The only definition of virtue Socrates ever ventured in his many fruitless attempts to define it was toequate virtue with knowledge. 4 Stone maintains that Socrates' dialectic ledto a dead end. To him, Socrates was constantly searching for certainty in theshape of a perfect definition and never finding it. Stone goes on to raise important questions about the trial: Why did Socrates set out to antagonize thejury? Why did Socrates not invoke the Athenian principle of free speech onhis own behalf? The importance of Stone's book is that it raises basic questions about Socrates' trial and calls into question the picture of Socrates as asecular saint.

Socrates and psychotherapyTwo of Socrates' basic ideas, know thyself and an unexamined life is notworth living, are fundamental to psychotherapy. With his charge to knowoneself, Socrates established a focal point basic not only to philosophy butalso to religion and psychology. With these ideas as a foundation, psychotherapy is aWestern rhetorical invention. Other thinkers, notably Nietzsche andFreud, have expanded the Socratic injunction to include the irrational dimensions of human existence.

Socrates' commitment to examine life continues with us in a commitmentto examine our premises, presuppositions, and beliefs. This commitment haspenetrated the field of family therapy. H.A. Liddle has argued for the necessity of an epistemological declaration on the part of the therapist.5 In such adeclaration a therapist states assumptions about human nature and valuesthat are embodied in the therapeutic process. Socrates' search for clear definitions is still very much with us in the therapeutic field as ongoing debatesabout diagnoses continue. How do we understand and define the issues thatpeople bring to us?Socrates' thought needs to be expanded from his individualistic paradigm.Knowing thyself becomes knowing thy family and relationships. MurrayBo wen argues that there are two forces operating in us?an individuationforce and a together force.6

Socrates' unrelenting commitment to questioning has been expanded bythe family therapist, particularly of the Milan approach, who asks questionsdesigned to evoke possibilities. These we call future-oriented questions or observer perspective questions. How did you react to ... ? would be an example of this technique. The types of questions we ask state our assumptionsand beliefs about people.



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Ernest Becker in his Pulitzer Prize winning The Denial of Death gives aSocratic definition of courage: Heroism is first and foremost a reflex of theterror of death. We admire most the courage to face death. 7 This is preciselythe picture we develop from the four dialogues in which Plato portrays thetrial and death of Socrates. This picture, inmy judgment, is representative ofthe epitome of moral philosophy. Stone's contribution may well not be the effectiveness of his argument, but rather the bringing of the human side ofSocrates back into focus. Our secular saint has feet of clay.

During his lifetime, Socrates was often in conflict with a group of itinerantteachers called Sophists. These men would, for a fee, teach the skill of excellence (arete), that is, how to make the best of one's abilities and live accordingly. Does this not sound strikingly familiar to the practice of psychotherapy? Socrates, even though he refused a fee, needs to be seen not only as aphilosopher but also as a psychotherapist. As has been demonstrated in thisarticle, his ideas are basic to the therapeutic enterprise.

References1. Chessick, R.D., A Brief Introduction to the Genius of Nietzsche. New York, University Press of

America, 1983, p. 14. Chessick is quoting from Japsers, K., The Great Philosophers, Vol. I.New York, Harcourt Brace and World, Inc., 1962, p. 30.2. Nehamas, A., Nietzsche: Life as Literature. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1985, p. 24.3. Ibid, p. 232.4. Stone, I.F., The Trial of Socrates. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1988, p. 39.5. Liddle, H.A., On the Problem of Eclecticism: A Call for Epistemologic Clarification and Human Scale Theories, Family Process, 1982, 21, 243-250.6. Bowen, M., Toward the Differentiation of a Self in One's Own Family. In Framo, J., ed.,

Family Interaction. New York, Springer, 1972.7. Becker, E., The Denial of Death. New York, The Free Press, 1937, p. 11.


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