Book Review: Martin Heidegger, A Political Life

Whilst epicurians and skeptics, unlike Plato and Aristotle, reject reason as a way out of difficulties, the stoics accept it, but use it in a rather forceful and controlling manner. I believe that there are again important points of contact with existential theory here and much can be learnt from stoicism both in terms of what might be helpful and what might be abusive. Who could disagree with the statement that 'the job of living actively in accordance with one's own reason, rather than passively, in the grip of habits and conventions, requires vigilance and probing' (pg. 328). On the other hand is our culture ready for the kind of ordering of the self and soul that stoics propose to bring about? But then again I would tend to agree with the view that 'daily life is not so much evil as flaccid and lazy. We get truth by toning up the muscles of the mind' (pg. 335). I also like the notion that stoic therapy can begin anywhere, because everything is connected, but that different temperaments need different approaches and that there is a critical moment (kairos) for intervention, a view shared by the epicurians. The stoics make a point of finding ways of penetrating deep into the soul and use story telling to do so.

The educational aspect of this therapy as of all the other hellenistic therapies is very strong, but this particular one also emphasizes the aspect of self-scrutiny, which includes an understanding of one's relationships. For the stoics the pupil's goal is to become his own teacher and pupil and again this fits neatly with the existential model as I conceive of it. I also like the idea that the soul must be exercised everyday, for instance by the use of logic and poetry. The objective is wisdom, which is the only ultimate value and virtue and leads to eudaimonia, the flourishing life. What I find much harder to swallow is the contention that such wisdom is primarily achieved through detachment and self-control. What I violently object to is that this requires us to extirpate our passions, although I agree that passions of which we lose control are counterproductive and that it is vital to be able to be in charge of our own emotions. I believe the trick is to expand one's capacity for passion at the same time as one's ability to control it, rather than to either get rid of passion (as do the skeptics, or minimize it as do the epicurians) or increase control over it (as do the stoics).

As you can see the book set me thinking actively about my own beliefs and their application to psychotherapy. The diversity of the philosophies discussed brings out so many new angles to every aspect of human living that the overall effect is extremely inspirational. My only regret was that Nussbaum is obviously not aware of modern forms of psychotherapy beyond a basic understanding of psychoanalysis. Sometimes her discussion remained rather arid and abstract because of this and exhibited the very weakness that she herself deplores in academic philosophy: that of being too far removed from the real world. This may be the case, but nevertheless I would rather read her scholarly work about what is on offer from centuries of human culture and tradition, than immerse myself in many of the more practical, but undisciplined and uncritical statements made by most psychotherapist authors. Nussbaum's work deserves to be taken up by those who do the kind of applied philosophy that she refers to, namely modern psychotherapy. The possibility of a cooperative venture between psychotherapy and philosophy has come another step closer with this publication. I shall be sure to recommend her text when I teach existential psychotherapy.

Emmy van Deurzen-Smith

Psychotherapy Research and Practice: bridging the gap

★ P. Forrest Talley, Hans H Strupp & Stephen F Butler (eds), Harper Collins, Glasgow, (1994) £25.00 (hb).

In 1934, in response to papers dealing with a series of experimental studies attempting to verify a number of psycho-analytic propositions sent to him by Dr Saul Rosenzweig, Freud wrote: I cannot put much value on such confirmations because the abundance of reliable observations on which these propositions rest makes them independent of experimental verification. In adopting this somewhat haughty (and to my mind deeply misguided) attitude, Freud's words contain in a nutshell the continuing tensions existing between psychotherapeutic research and practice.

This edited text is among the finest that I have read regarding the potential points of contact and the existing points of division between psychotherapeutic research and practice. Inspired by a series of weekly meetings that took place throughout the middle to late years of the 1980's at Vanderbilt University, the text is divided into two main sections. The first presents the problems and critiques of psychotherapy research as viewed by five psychotherapists. The remaining section consists of a number of papers written by a number of of researchers (some of whom are also practicing psychotherapists) who seek to develop various 'working marriages' between practice and research. While I found the first section to be of greater interest, I was intrigued enough by the second to stay with it and found something of worth in each of the research-based articles. Overall, however, I remained most impressed by a paper by Marshall Edelson entitled 'Can psychotherapy research answer this psychotherapist's questions?' While very personal, and presented in the form of a 'question and answer' session, I found myself engaged, amused and enlightened by it and feel that many practitioners who are either unclear or uncertain as to the possible value of psychotherapeutic research will feel that their concerns have been more than adequately voiced by Edelson. I also want to direct readers of this Journal to a paper by Leston Havens ('Some suggestions for making research more applicable to clinical practice') as they may be enlightened by a description of the clinical practice of Harry Stack Sullivan which makes plain why R D Laing acknowledged a major indebtedness to him.

In the concluding chapter, the text editors write:

In reviewing the chapters of this book we looked for points of agreement among the contributors but found only a few. What stands out with the greatest clarity regarding the present relationship between research and practice is the clinicians' perspective that research is not significantly informative to the therapeutic enterprise and the researchers' view that clinicians have turned a deaf ear to meaningful empirical findings (Talley et al, 1994: 254).

Yet it must be said that they remain hopeful of a deepening respect between the two camps which might well lead to a partial rapprochement that may prove to be of significant benefit to both research and practice.

While I must warn readers that virtually all of the 'psychotherapeutic practice' is effectively psycho-analytically focused, this should not put them off searching out this book. For any practitioner (regardless of model orientation) who either champions or disdains psychotherapeutic research, or who, perhaps more commonly, is unclear as to its possibilities and limitations, I would recommend this admirably frank and lively book without reservation.

Simon du Plock