Philosophy is the art of living.
—Cicero 

What Clinical Philosophy Is

Philosophy is the desire for wisdom (philo- + sophia), and clinical philosophy is that desire put into practice: the intentional harmonizing of our thinking and living with wisdom. Through honest conversation, unhurried reading, thoughtful silence, and sustained self-reflection, clinical philosophy aids us in developing and deepening our understanding of ourselves and reality, and in living a more authentic, ethical, and integrated life.

Most people first encounter philosophy in college (or on YouTube), and this is often an exciting awakening to what Aristotle calls our ‘natural desire to understand’; it certainly was for me. But there are limits to how personal these encounters can be. Even if we grasp the profound, perhaps even unsettling, implications of a certain idea or insight for our lives, social norms prevent us from sharing details or getting emotional in front of our class or professor—and most of us wouldn’t want to make ourselves vulnerable in that way in the first place.

What’s more, we’re sometimes encouraged, implicitly or explicitly, to keep our philosophical thinking confined to just that—thinking, rather than allowing our lives to be changed by the truth we are encountering. Here is what Aristotle makes of that:

most people do not actually work at becoming good, but take refuge in theory and think they are being philosophers and will become good in this way. They behave like patients who listen attentively to their doctors, but do none of the things they are ordered to do. Just as such a course of treatment will not make one healthy in body, so no one will be made well in soul by such a course of philosophy. (Nic. Eth. II.4)

In contrast, philosophy can be understood, not primarily as the systematic study of ideas, but as a way of life—the art of living. To practice this art is to commit yourself as completely as you are able to embracing truth and following wherever it might lead.

Put another way, clinical philosophy is the continuation of Socrates’ mission to live an examined life: to become questions to ourselves, to live fully awake rather than half-asleep, and to tell ourselves the truth rather than contenting ourselves with half-truths and appearances. One of Socrates’ friends puts it like this:

whoever comes into close contact with Socrates and associates with him in conversation must, even if he began by conversing about something quite different, be led about by the man’s arguments until he submits to answering questions about himself concerning both his past life and the one he is living now. And when he submits to this questioning, Socrates will not let him go before he has well and truly tested every last detail. (Laches 187e)

As it was for Socrates, so it is for philosophical practitioners: “Our conversation concerns no ordinary topic, but the way we should live” (Republic I, 352d). Clinical philosophy addresses the vexing questions and the existential disorientation and disorder that appear to be constants of human living. You can get a sense for what a clinical philosophy session would look like here.

What Clinical Philosophy Addresses

We often begin to ask deeper questions when faced with serious problems, and so clinical philosophy frequently starts from difficulties such as confusion about one’s deepest values and ethical living; difficulties in love, in friendship, or in one’s family roles; abiding dread or unease; feelings of meaninglessness; questions about one’s religion or faith, reason, and God; questions of identity, of the true or false self; forms of loss, stress, panic, professional or career challenges, confidence difficulties, procrastination, anger, fear, aging issues, forgiveness, shame, emotional volatility, issues with attachment and with authority, life transitions, hopelessness, passivity, chronic indecision, apathy, and loneliness.

Many of these issues may sound like what brings people to psychotherapy or mental health counseling, and that perception is accurate: insofar as clinical philosophy is a “talking cure” directed at painful impasses in our lives, it can be understood as a sort of philosophical therapy.

It differs from professional psychotherapy or counseling, however, in two ways. First, clinical philosophy engages directly with clients’ philosophical (and, because the love of wisdom can also be understood as the love of God, spiritual and theological) questions and problems in a way not typical of treatments focused primarily on diagnosing and treating mental disorders.

In fact—and here is the second difference—clinical philosophy does not address itself to disorders of personality and mental function at all, for instance delusions, abnormal motor behavior, phobias, PTSD, OCPD, psychosis, and so on. These issues often have complex psychosomatic causes and require treatment by mental health or medical professionals. Clinical philosophy can aid, but not replace, that treatment.

Clinical Philosophy, Spirituality, and Theology

As I mentioned above, philosophical questioning often involves questions about the human spirit, God, and religion. This is as it should be, since philosophy is about the way we should live, and God and religion have been essential to questions of how we should live for most people in most cultures throughout human history. In fact, at one point Socrates characterizes philosophy as the effort “to become like God, so far as that is possible” (Theaetetus 176b). In addition to philosophical training, I have also spent quite a bit of time studying religion and theology, and am able and willing to engage these issues in our sessions.