The Transcendental Technique of Philosophical Counseling is a perspective-based healing process that begins with the relationship with oneself and progresses through stages of relating to others and the transcendent. This was the subject of a recent Philosophical Chat column in the Catholic Peace Weekly.
The transcendental technique of philosophical counseling is characterized by a perspective-based healing process that begins with one's relationship to oneself and progresses through stages of relating to others and to the absolute other (the transcendent).
The first stage is "first-person perspective healing," which involves managing oneself by examining emotions and escaping the whirlwind of intense feelings. The second stage is "second-person perspective healing," which involves confronting and understanding the events (the other) that caused intense emotions through rational reflection and introspection. The third stage is "third-person perspective healing," which involves pursuing ultimate and absolute meaning (the absolute other) through continuous spiritual questioning.
The first stage is healing from a first-person perspective. Crises and suffering in life always begin with overwhelming, negative, and intense emotions. What can we do when intense anger, sadness, lamentation, despair, fear, and emptiness overwhelm us for whatever reason? In fact, what we can do in the whirlwind of uncontrollable emotions is very limited. This is because rationality is almost paralyzed at the moment. This is why Boethius (480-524), in "The Consolation of Philosophy," prescribed for himself, before his unjust death, not the "strong medicine" of rational reason, but the "weak medicine" of managing emotions. To manage emotions, rather than denying or avoiding them, we must return to ourselves and listen to our confused emotions with a sincere heart. What is needed most at this time is compassion, comfort, empathy, and love.
The second stage is healing in a second-person perspective. Questions triggered by emotions are still not clearly articulated. This means that our problems cannot be solved simply by managing our emotions. While emotions clearly trigger questions, the direction of those questions is guided not by emotion, but by reason. The core of second-person perspective healing is to move beyond self-centeredness, turning one's attention to the surrounding world and others, thereby confronting and objectifying events (situations), assigning meaning, and intuitively grasping their essence. Of course, this requires deep philosophical insight and, if necessary, the help of a professional philosophical counselor. Above all, the philosophical counselor, within empathetic dialogue, helps the client accurately perceive the essence of the situation unfolding before them through insightful philosophical thinking and discernment—in other words, "the rationality of reason combined with the emotions that intuitively grasp life."
The third stage is healing in a third-person perspective. This is a stage of spiritual healing in which an absolute other intervenes, and the movement of transcendence moves toward something absolute that encompasses the entire meaning of life. Here, the absolute other refers to the ultimate ground in a metaphysical sense, the transcendent being or existence itself.
Meaning is never confined to the individual; it is infinitely open towards the whole and the absolute. This is why we constantly assign meaning in life. As long as meaning is not a nihilistic self-negation, it is always grounded in existence, and existence reveals its meaning through human existential commitment. Existence supports meaning, but meaning is revealed through human existence. Therefore, as a "subject of meaning," humanity actively, not passively, relates to the absolute other, experiencing self-transcendence that goes beyond its own boundaries through the continuous assignment of meaning in life.
