Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Roham Sharaf

Assiatant Professor of philosophy, University of Zanjan, Zanjan. Iran.

Abstract

Philosophical counseling is a type counseling which has become popular in recent thirty years in developed countries. It is not only utilized to answer philosophical questions of the clients but to treat psychological disorders as well as individual and social problems. In fact, this type of counseling is an important manifestation of practical philosophy in the contemporary world and reflects the important position of philosophy in individual and social life. On the other hand, logotherapy is one of the important theories in the field of psychiatry which has attracted the attention of many psychiatrists and tries to look at the analysis and treatment of spiritual and psychological problems from a different perspective. Based on this theory, the main root of human’s psychological problems is his/her failure to find a meaning in life which leads to nihilism. Although this type of treatment has been formulated based on the thoughts of such philosophers as Max Scheler, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Jaspers as Viktor Frankl, the founder of this theory, confirms this fact, the hypothesis of this article is that logotherapists also need philosophical counseling in the process of treating their clients because there are cases where the logotherapist is unable to apply principles of logotherapy and its techniques and therefore the issue of the interaction between philosophical counselor and logotherapist is raised in the process of treatment. This article is aimed at explaining the role of philosophical counseling both in clarifying the foundations of logotherapy and implementation of its techniques and demonstrate the fundamental importance of philosophical counseling from this perspective. We hope to see growing application of this type of counseling in Iran in near future.  

Keywords

• philosophical counseling
• worldview
• logic-based therapy
• logotherapy
• paradoxical intention
• dereflection

Main Subjects

• philosophy