Non-transcendent therapy

Non-transcendent therapy

Contents

Knowledge. 1

Non-transcendent. 1

Power relations. 1

Truth. 1

Therapy. 2

Understanding. 2

Treatment. 2

Knowledge

Non-transcendent

There is no transcendent object that knowledge is a growing approximation to.

Here are five ideas (and some questions) in its support

Firstly, knowledge depends on our senses but there is no reason that our species senses give us unequivocal access to what is….Would you believe a man with red glasses who told you about the colour of the world? Would you believe your tool box is the one to unlock the secret of the world, could there not be others, indeed whose to say there is only one essential secret per object to be had?

Secondly there are irrevocable contradictions between the discourses of knowledge. Newtonian vs Quantum physics, which have different understandings about things ability to be in two different places at the same time.  The human sciences of psychology, economics etc which require human will and those that don’t e.g. biology. They are tolerated as they point to different areas of human life, they are used as they add value, enable us to get more utility out of these various areas.

Thirdly language which is pre-existing to life, and indeed demarcates life. Language gives meaning through words pointing to other words that it is like or is dissimilar to. At no point does language get outside of itself to point to the world.

Fourthly the evidence that is offered to support science is theoretical, thus science uses one body of theory to support another. Whilst it has enabled some amazing things to happen, it still does not give us facts of the world, but rather it can help us with facts of utility.

Five the idea of a transcendent object that knowledge approximates, sounds like a horrendous hangover from God, the transcendent, eternal object.  Does this sense of transcendence merely relax are unease in the face of uncertainty, chaos and complexity.

Power relations

So, what is the purpose of language and knowledge. Knowledge enables us to satisfy more of our desires, and in turn creates new desire in their turn. So, as we learn about cancer then we start to learn how to cure it.  Language and the concepts held in its simplest part, the pronouns of I, you, it, being radical and unjustifiable statements about subject\object relations in the world.

If we follow that there is no transcendent referent to give a word meaning then you can be led to the Wittgenstein language games, and how words will be used as part of games. One word can lead to many games thus there is a singular definition of a word but rather a range of ways it can be used.

As much as language holds interpretations of the world, it does so firstly to enable our desires to be satisfied which will involve relationships of power. Indeed, if you think of power as a constitutive aspect as much as a controlling aspect then power can be seen as the nature of relationship between things, it is what constituted the thing and what made the style of relationship.

Truth

What makes a belief true is the evidence that goes with it. This evidence what is considered to be evidence by certain groups of people. So, scientists determine some types of evidence, lawyers and politician’s others, etc. This evidence is always theory laden whether it is about the instruments used, telescopes, or the concepts, intentionality or justice.  So truth is a social agreed theory.

Therapy

Understanding

So as humans we grown up in a culture with many narratives and language games, some old, some new, some local, some global, some conflicting. How you might understand the word “anger” may depend on your values, your knowledge or how it is seen in your specific culture.  Likewise, all these variables become even more specific depending on how you learnt what anger is from your parents, and how your developmental group reacted to your anger.

So, in therapy the basic client narrative is things aren’t working somehow. So, there’s two parts of this, how I see things, the sense of how things should be and the effect of the gap, so ok there are three things.

As a therapist, I guess you need to work with your client to understand the three parts of this and what you will be doing is entering their world to understand what it’s like to be them, having had the experiences that lead to the construction of this triad.  So this would start with a phenomenal account and then dig deeper into conceivably a longitudinal account and you might end up with a better description of what it is , what it wants to be and where both of these came from.

I guess also as a therapist you will have read many theories about human’s experience, possibly have techniques related to them and have learnt about other people’s lives and their construction of their world.

There is some use and plausibility in this prior knowledge and experience the therapist has, as these are potential ways in which you can see the world. I say potential as there are groups of people who think like this so they have validity, currently. So, these ideas can be offered to a new client without fear of malpractice. Of course, it might not fit the new client as they don’t want to play those types of language games, nor conceivably support those types of power relations.

Treatment

So if the construction of the problem is the gap between how my life is and how I would like it then it would seem like a new language game would be the way to go. Whilst many would like this human existence isn’t upgradable in a way that our phones are. Rather there seems different aspects of knowledge that which I believe, and that which I act on. Seeing smoking is bad yet I do it would be an instance of the difference. It seems when we act on a belief long enough it becomes habitual, unconscious and somatic. We don’t need to think any more to drive cars, or perform complex linguistic or mathematic acts in the way that we used to. That’s the nice stuff, the nasty stuff is I can’t stop comfort eating even though I know it doesn’t help me.

Thus the work this leads therapy to is a few fold

1.       It can be slow, there is no magic bullet

2.       Slow development will be helped by noticing the pieces build

3.       It can be about your relation to  the gap