Wittgenstein and Psychotherapy ─ From Paradox to Wonder

The ever-expanding therapies available and many developments in psychology and psychiatry are based on theoretical assumptions that the mind is some sort of empirical object. But practices based on this assumption have not yielded results consistent with evidence–based practice. Using the work of Wittgenstein, John Heaton challenges this notion of theoretical authority by showing how it is that children come to be initiated into speaking and perceiving meaning. Wittgenstein and Psychotherapy argues for a new understanding of therapy as an attempt by patients to express themselves thereby showing and saying what they have been unable to see or say and accepting that things in the world are not as fixed as they assume. Therapists, like writers, may describe what is witnessed but this is of a very different order from explanations. This book critiques the conjectural leap from descriptions to theoretical systems made by Freud and others, a scientism that continues to give false validation to the myth that understanding people is the same as being an expert on the mind and brain.

John Heaton is a private practice psychotherapist and teaches regularly at Regent's University London and the Philadelphia Association, London, UK. He trained in medicine, psychology and philosophy at the University of Cambridge, UK, and specialized in ophthalmology for 10 years. After becoming interested in visual experience, he trained in psychotherapy. He is a founder member of the Guild of Psychotherapy and was editor of the Journal for Existential Analysis for seven years.