Foundational Questions
Six questions that shape how therapists understand the person, change, and healing. Each one is answered by philosophers across traditions — with clinical implications for how you practice.
Question 1
What is a person?
What are we made of? Is there a self, and what is it?
Edmund HusserlMaurice Merleau-PontyMartin HeideggerThe BuddhaJacques Lacan +3
A consciousness that is always directed toward something—always conscious of. Th…
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What causes suffering?
Where does psychological pain come from? What sustains it?
Sigmund FreudSøren KierkegaardThe BuddhaFrantz FanonJohn Bowlby +3
Unconscious conflict. The drives seek expression; the ego and superego seek cont…
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What is therapeutic change?
How does a person actually change? What makes therapy work?
Eugene GendlinCarl RogersWilfred BionJessica BenjaminBessel van der Kolk +3
When what is split off and unfelt becomes felt, it changes. The felt sense shift…
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What is the therapist's role?
What should the therapist be doing? What is their ethical position?
Emmanuel LevinasMartin BuberSimone WeilSigmund FreudHeinz Kohut +3
Receiving revelation. Remaining open to what the client presents, resisting the …
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What is the relationship between mind and body?
Are they separate? How does the body relate to psychological experience?
Maurice Merleau-PontyAntonio DamasioWilhelm ReichWilliam JamesFrancisco Varela +3
There is no separation. The body is the subject. Perception, memory, and emotion…
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Can language capture experience?
What happens at the limits of what can be said?
Ludwig WittgensteinJacques LacanPaul CelanMaurice BlanchotEugene Gendlin +2
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. What cannot be spoken sti…
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