The Utility of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Philosophy for Philosophical Counseling

Abstract

This article explores the potential utility of certain features of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical concepts for philosophical counselling. Central to the philosophical counseling process is philosophical counsellors applying the ideas of philosophers or philosophical system to inspire, educate, and guide their counselees in dealing with life problems. For example, the philosophical practice methodology of Logic-based Therapy, developed by American philosopher Elliot Cohen, provides a rational framework for confronting problems of living, where the counselor helps the counselee find an uplifting philosophy that promotes a guiding virtue to act as an antidote to unrealistic and often self-defeating conclusions derived from irrational premises. I present the argument that Nietzsche’s analysis of suffering, is one such uplifting philosophy which can be of utility to philosophical counselors. According to Bernard Reginster, suffering forms the bedrock of Nietzsche’s life-affirming concept of the ‘will to power.’ Nietzsche’s notion of the will to power radically alters our conception of, and the significance we assign to suffering, where the will to power is best understood as an individual’s desire for the activity of overcoming resistance. Nietzsche’s analysis implies that the fundamental human impulse is not to avoid suffering, but rather to embrace suffering as an unavoidable existential given of life itself: the meaning to be found in suffering is tantamount to affirming life itself.