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Philosophical Aspects of Psychotherapy*

Viktor Frankl has said ‘There is no psychotherapy without a theory of man and a philosophy of life underlying it’ (Frankl, 1969). My aim, here, is not to propose yet another theory of man or philosophy of life which therapists might be enjoined to apply to their practice. Rather, I wish to examine some of the fundamental assumptions of psychotherapy by exposing the conceptual framework and methodological bases of philosophical movements which have had a considerable bearing on therapeutic practice. It is not the British analytical tradition in philosophy, standardly taught in Australian universities, which is primarily relevant to our purposes. Instead, we must turn to the European philosophical tradition, represented by the movements of phenomenology and existentialism. Both the British and the Continental tradition are concerned with questions of meaning. But, at the risk of caricature, we might say that, whereas the major questions for the British analytical school are those relating to the meaning of language, the primary concern of the Continental school of thought is the meaning of life. It is the latter European tradition which is the acknowledged source of inspiration where much recent re-thinking in the field of psychotherapy is concerned (May, 1960; Laing, 1965; Rycroft, 1968; Lomas, 1973). Generally speaking, the European tradition, which combines the phenomenological and existentialist schools of thought, embodies a