Anthropological Foundations for Clinical Psychology: A proposal

Abstract

The concept of human nature as an enduring set of capacities and mechanisms capable upon observation and reflection of being understood and facilitated in their proper function is basic to understanding the assumptions upon which clinical psychology rests. Clinical psychology assumes there is sufficient stability in the underlying capacities of human nature to test observations, draw generalized conclusions and reliably predict behavior. This essay's aim is to make a case for the importance of articulating a normative account of human nature for clinical psychology; and then to set forth a concise account of the basic constituents and capacities of human nature. The account takes the form of a set of descriptive premises that together constitute a concise philosophical conception of the human person that the authors think can serve as a normative theoretical and abstract foundation for reasoning in the field of clinical psychology.