Practical Philosophy around the World

Philosophical Counselling: the Spanish dimension

Trevor Curnow Practical Philosophy 7:1 (Agosto 2004). Pg. 47

In Cordoba, there are statues of Seneca, Averroes and Maimonides, reminders of Spains philosophical past. In April 2004 an event took place in Seville that may prove to have an important influence on its philosophical future. The occasion was the first international Spanish-speaking conference on philosophical counselling, organised by ETOR, a small group of philosophers based at the University of Seville. The conference followed hard on the heels of the publication of Introduccin al asesoramiento y la orientacin filosofca, written by one of ETORs members, Jos Barrientos Rastrojo. The conference was a great success, and it is to be hoped that the book will become one. Together, they point towards some interesting new directions for Spanish philosophy.

The conference had three dimensions to it. Its primary aim was to provide an opportunity for those working in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world to get together and share their ideas and experiences relating to philosophical counselling and other areas of philosophy in practice. However, at an early stage it was also decided to invite a number of contributors from outside the Spanish-speaking world, and these eventually comprised Lydia Amir, Lou Marinoff, Peter Raabe, Shlomit Schuster and myself. Finally, the conference was thrown open to students at the University of Seville, in effect making it both a conference and a short course at the same time.

For those of us whose Spanish was rather less than fluent, one of the disappointments was not being able to keep up with all of the papers presented or subsequent debates they engendered. However, suffice it to say that they covered a wide range of topics, and that the discussions were frequently both prolonged and animated. One of the recurrent themes was the vexed one of the connections, or lack of them, between philosophical counselling and other disciplines such as psychoanalysis. For those of us who had attended some of the international English-speaking conferences, there was an element of dj vu in this, but it was interesting to see the old issues being worked through in a new context.

One of the pleasures was at least beginning to learn something about the work of some who have yet to make an impact outside the Spanish-speaking world. Roxana Kreimer, for example, talked about her experiences as a philosophical counsellor and organiser of philosophical cafs in Argentina. She is also one of the subjects of Jos Barrientos Rastrojos book.

It is designed as an introduction to philosophical counselling, and begins with a short history of the subject. However, the greater part of the book is devoted to a study of the work of a number of established names in the field. In addition to Roxana Kreimer, those discussed are Gerd Achenbach, Shlomit Schuster, Peter Raabe, Ran Lahav, Lou Marinoff, and Practical Philosophys very own Tim LeBon. In each case the aim is to give a brief biography, followed by an account of their approach to philosophical counselling, both in terms of their understanding of what it is, and with reference to particular aspects of the way they practise it. One of the strengths of the book is that the author has drawn on a number of personal communications with his subjects, giving them the opportunity to provide their own clarifications and explanations of their positions. Consequently, although the book has a single author, in many ways it is also something of a collaborative venture.

It is not so many years since most of the literature available on philosophical counselling was available only in German or in Dutch. Since then, in part due to the international conferences, a wide variety of materials have appeared in English. Thanks to the Seville conference and Jos Barrientos Rastrojos book, it is apparent that a new Spanish dimension to philosophical counselling has been clearly and firmly established. Fuente: http://www.practical-philosophy.org.uk/Volumes/Volume7.1.htm