Holistic irreducibility: Humanistic practice as the gateway to phenomenal mind

Abstract

AbstractWhile scholarly references to “holism” are abundant in the literature, the term is often applied as a synonym for multidimensionality. Humanistic counseling is committed to genuinely holistic practices guided by the principle of irreducibility. From a phenomenological stance, what makes humanistic counseling unique is the guiding assumption that pre‐reflective subjectivity is not only real rather than epiphenomenal, but the basic source of therapeutic change. By examining philosophical distinctions between psychological mind and phenomenal mind, it becomes clear that humanistic therapies facilitate intrapsychic contact with pre‐reflective experience under the presumption that such experiential self‐contact is a precondition for post hoc psychological interpretations of experience. Although humanistic strategies can be applied in non‐humanistic practice, its guiding philosophical position and purposefulness in practice makes it otherwise ungeneralizable. The concept of holistic irreducibility is defined at two conceptual levels and differences between psychological and phenomenal mind are explored through person‐centered and existential therapies.