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medpundit |
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004The lawsuit is only one of several fronts in Marinoff's crusade to make philosophical counseling a mainstream profession, and to make himself its public face. His message, spoken in a defensive staccato, goes like this: Americans are tired of psychologists dwelling on our every painful feeling, we're sick of psychiatrists prescribing a new drug every time we feel confused and many of our most pressing problems aren't even emotional or chemical to begin with -- they're philosophical. To wit: You don't have to be clinically depressed or burdened by childhood guilt to want help with the timeless questions of the human condition -- the persistence of suffering and the inevitability of death, the need for a reliable ethics. ''Even sane, functional people need principles to live by,'' Marinoff told me, his voice lowering without slowing in the sun-flooded courtroom, ''so we are offering what Socrates called the examined life, the chance to sit with a philosopher and ask what you really believe and make sure it's working for you.'' It's hard to believe they could be any worse at counseling than what passes for professional counseling in a lot of cases. And goodness knows, the philosophy majors could use the work. But he's got much bigger plans than that. Philosophers can be the saviors of the world: ....Describing his grand -- even grandiose -- plans for a philosophical-counseling empire fills Marinoff with a combative intensity. ''We are already training and certifying practitioners,'' he said, his voice gaining speed. ''We could have them delivering services in prisons and elder-care facilities and hospitals working alongside of doctors. We could have ethicists helping people make difficult end-of-life decisions. We could be rendering services to governments all over the world. We could basically make philosophy more popular than it's been since the days of the agora, in ancient Greece.'' (emphasis mine) Evidently, he skipped this lesson in school. posted by Sydney on 3/24/2004 08:53:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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