Philotherapy

"How to free ourselves from the psychic and social forces hindering us in achieving wisdom? To find an answer to this question has always been a therapeutic motive in philosophy, and with his book Aleksandar Fatic takes up this question anew on a broad scale by integrating philosophy and modern, not evidence based, but philosophically relevant psychotherapy. Also for philosophical practitioners as myself who have always been eager to emphasize that we are not offering psychotherapy this book represents a challenge we cannot evade.--Anders Lindseth, professor emeritus, Nord University With this erudite and rich book, Aleksandar Fatić provides a comprehensive account of 'philotherapy', that is, an analysis, grounding, and application of philosophy as a therapeutic practice informed by theoretical, and particularly Freudian, psychology. Fatić often prescribes techniques for becoming more aware of one's own states of mind so that one can pay more attention to the perspectives and value of others and overcome the social alienation typical of the narcissistic culture of our age. Therapists, psychologists, social philosophers, ethicists, and activists would learn much from Fatić about how everyday life in the 21st century maddens us and, even more revealingly, which under-considered strategies would impart more sanity to patients, organizations, media, and politics.--Thaddeus Metz, University of Pretoria Aleksandar Fatic has authored a compelling manifesto for philotherapy, an integrative paradigm for philosophical practice and all helping professions, and a sharp dissection of metaphysical and moral muddles that confound psychiatry and psychotherapy. Philotherapy presents meticulous meta-diagnoses of rampant ""mental afflictions"" as inextricably woven with social malaises sustained by dysfunctional noetic operating systems destructive to self and others. Fatic argues cogently that the core problem is widespread atrophy of moral (and therefore human) agency itself, reversible only by shining bright axiological lights on the roles of our chosen intentional states as cocreators of our phenomenology and life trajectories alike. Depending on what we choose to value, our overall life condition will be diminished or elevated accordingly. Fatic's insights include a synthesis of axiology with modal logic that facilitates clients' actualization of desirable and possible modal worlds, whose very existences remain opaque to the DSM's nominalistic nosology. Philotherapy is a clarion call to Socratic practitioners to reawaken virtue, value and value-creation in troubled persons and corrupted institutions that have not yet sold their souls, but have carelessly deactivated their moral compasses.--Lou Marinoff, Professor of Philosophy, The City College of New York"