A Jamesian Critique of the Counseling Movement

Abstract

This article argues for a “dialectical tension” between critical, psychological theory, and the practice of psychotherapy. It finds fault with the development of the counseling movement from Adler to the present; it also finds, in the philosophical categories offered in the pragmatism of William James, a consistent and fruitful ground for both critical theorizing and therapeutic pursuits. Positivism is rejected in favor of an empiricism that allows for metaphysical statements to be articulated concerning the fundamental structures and truths that constitute the reality of human experience.