Ronald B. MILLER : The Restoration of Dialogue : Readings in the Philosophy of Clinical Psychology

PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR

This book is intended as a remedy, a bibliotherapy of sorts, for a serious malady that afflicts the mental health professions themselves but that remains largely undiagnosed. The disorder requiring urgent treatment is the splitting of clinical theory from its historical and logical foundation in Western philosophy, the resulting inability to speak effectively about theoretical differences, and the fragmentation into rival professions and theoretically isolated « schools » of treatment. What is required as an antidote to this tendency toward a dogmatic, schismatic, and often cultist approach to clinical theory is the recognition of the philosophical nature of these theoretical disputes and the restoration of philosophical methods of analysis and dialogue to a central role in the development of clinical theory. In this manner, the energies that currently are invested in the protection of professional turf and ideological diatribe may be devoted instead to collaborative discourse, research, and action. This is what will be required to make genuine headway in understanding that particular form of human misery and suffering that is variously called behavior disorders, emotional disturbance, problems in living, or mental illness.