Therapy for the Sane

by Lou Marinoff

Professor Lou Marinoff's first book, the international bestseller Plato, Not Prozac!, drew on the wisdom of the great philosophers to solve everyday problems, launching a movement that made philosophy useful again. Now, in Therapy for the Sane, he takes the concept to the next level by applying philosophy and its literature to the central questions of modern existence.

Urging us not to accept victimhood blindly, Dr. Marinoff uses specific case studies from his counseling practice to show how the great thinkers can help us define our own philosophy, and thereby reclaim our sense of well-being. How do we know what is right? How can we cope with change? How can we use centuries of wisdom to help us feel at ease in the world? Accessible, entertaining, and essential, Therapy for the Sane presents a shift in perspective that is truly life-changing.

Therapy for the Sane was originally published in hardcover as The Big Questions.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychology, Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published December 10, 2013

About the author

Lou Marinoff is Professor of Philosophy at The City College of New York, founding President of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA), and an internationally bestselling author.

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Included many case studies showing how one could use a philosophical perspective to understand and cope with relationship changes, workplace stress, and other life events (the shit that happens to everyone throughout our lives). The philosophical exercises at the end of each chapter made for some interesting, helpful thoughts. There was one chapter that I felt was off-center in how it related conflicts among men and women and relationship expectations. I thought it confused sex and gender in the discussion. The final chapter on building your own life philosophy was most useful. I had a sense as I read the book of what my life philosophy was, and this clarified it. It made me feel like I actually had my head on straight. The appendix listing significant philosophers was a good quick reference.

[Frank Jude · Rating 3 out of 5]

Using philosophy for or as therapy is a valid approach. Armchair philosophy, after all, is pretty arid. Marinoff practices philosophical counseling which is arguably a pretty privileged position. Again and again, the book talks about "victimization" which, as an identity, I agree is pretty problematic and much of our popular culture tends to valorizing (there's an element of identity politics that ends up making victimhood into a competition! However, there are many times I think Marinoff writes off real causes of oppression, blaming the victim for their suffering and oppression!

That said, my biggest criticism is his unquestioned metaphysics that rears its head over and over. For instance, very early on in the book he asserts: "Even if minds emerge from brains, minds have properties independent of brains." This is not only illogical, it is nothing more than dualistic metaphysics that has little to no evidence of in neuro- or cognitive science where the consensus (as of now at least) is that the mind is what the brain does.

He has lots of good things to say about Buddhism, but what he says shows that he has a superficial understanding of it at best. For instance, speaking of the Eightfold Path as a deontological "rule book" similar to the Ten Commandments "widely used by Jews and Christians" completely distorts the function of sila (the ethical component of the Eightfold Path).

He comes across as a libertarian, literally saying of Ayn Rand that she is "an important, original thinker, who championed integrity and ability as keys to a productive and prosperous society" and that "Rand's fictional capitalists are all schooled in philosophy, and they are all virtuous beings." THAT really floored me!

Finally, to bolster his unquestioned metaphysics and his argument for "spirit", he falls into the fallacy of arguing from ignorance (surprising for a philosopher); because we don't know how to "explain" the Big Bang or how life arose out of non-life (though interestingly we are making progress on that) or, in talking about consciousness how we cannot yet explain how it arises therefore "spirit" is a kind of "god of the gaps" argument.

So, all in all, not a great book though the project of approaching philosophy for life's existential dilemmas is valid.

[Turgwaith Gondren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dobro je što je autor postavio dosta važnih pitanja i donekle različit način gledanja na njih, kao i na ponuđene odgovore. Knjiga je doslovno puna svega i svačega. Poglavlje o odnosu čoveka i tehnologije je po mom mišljenju najbolje napisano i ceo problem dosta dobro sagledava. S druge strane, poglavlje o duhovnosti je puno navođenja i preporučivanja svakakvih vrsta ezoterije i misticizma i predstavlja poprilično (u mom slučaju negativno) iznenađenje u odnosu na dotadašnji tok knjige. Autor čak preporučuje i svakodnevno bacanje kockica i pravljenje heksagrama na osnovu kojih treba, pomoću Knjige promena, da donosimo dobre odluke u životu, jer je to praksa koju on sam primenjuje trideset godina…

Glavna negativna stvar je što se kompletna knjiga može posmatrati kao reklama za određenu vrstu istočnjačke filozofije (taoizam i sl.), što naravno samo po sebi nije loše, samo je onda podnaslov knjige trebalo eksplicitno da glasi „kako istočnjačka filozofija može da vam promeni život“. S druge strane, vrlo samo skeptičan u pogledu same ideje filozofskog savetovanja, jer mi se čini da sama praksa pati od istih boljki kao i psihoanalitička – čak je na neki način jasno i iz samih primera koje autor nudi (iz njegove prakse) da su određene „filozofije“ naknadno, ad hoc i veštački učitane u probleme i rešenja njegovih „pacijenata“.

[Shiela]

Not the book for me at present. Maybe another time.

[Amy]

love