SETTING AN AGENDA FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE THOUGHT OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860) IN CONTEMPORARY PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOLOGY, AND PSYCHOTHERAPY.

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), sometimes referred to as "the psychologist of the "will", but scarce empirical research has been conducted on the relevance of his philosophy for psychology and psychiatry. Following his death, philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists, artists, writers, and natural scientists commended him. However, he was harshly criticized by others, notably by Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. Schopenhauer entitled his capital work as "The world as will and representation" (1818). His key concept is the "Will" which refers to the metaphysical source of all that exists. He considered deliberate human actions as a small part of the whole Will, which is mostly unconscious, blind, and purposeless. While the primeval Will is unknowable, the inner perception of our body in wishing is the closest approximation to the Will. Living beings have a "Representation" of the Will. With this construct, Schopenhauer explored most areas of knowledge in his time. The Will's nature, conceived as a tendency or imperative to exist, unavoidably leads to normative self-centeredness in all living beings, and often to egoism and malice in humans. Notwithstanding, he envisioned a path for individual (but not collective) salvation based on aesthetic contemplation, compassion, and asceticism. After describing his text's plan, we propose that selected contemporary constructs of psychotherapy may meet Schopenhauer's path to individual salvation. This sets the basis for approaching Schopenhauer to standard and novel psychotherapeutic and psychoeducational tools, as we illustrate here in selected aspects of clinical cases. The psychological correlates of the Will as postulated by Schopenhauer, and the sharp prose by which he referred to human motivations, are his key contributions to contemporary psychotherapy and psychoeducation. Since Schopenhauer funded his thought on the natural sciences, it may also enrich the integrative trends in contemporary psychiatry and psychology.