The Schopenhauer Cure

Philip responded, «To my surprise group therapy is a far more

complex phenomenon than I had originally thought. I`d prefer you

supervise my work with clients while I was also attending the

group, but you`ve rejected that idea because of the problems of

‘dual relationships.` My choice is to remain in the group for the

entire year and to request supervision after that.»

«I`m fine with that plan,” Julius agreed, «but it depends, of

course, on the state of my health. The group has four more months

before we end, and after that we`ll have to see. My health

guarantee was only for one year.»

Philip`s change of mind about group participation was not

uncommon. Members often enter a group with one circumscribed

goal in mind, for example, to sleep better, to stop having

nightmares, to overcome a phobia. Then, in a few months, they

often formulate different, more far–reaching goals, for example, to

learn how to love, to recapture zest for life, to overcome loneliness,

to develop self–worth.

From time to time the group pressed Philip to describe more

precisely how Schopenhauer had helped so much when Julius`s

psychotherapy had so utterly failed. Because he had difficulty

answering questions about Schopenhauer without providing the

necessary philosophical background, he requested the group`s

permission to give a thirty–minute lecture on the topic. The group

groaned, and Julius urged him to present the relevant material

more succinctly and conversationally.

The following session Philip embarked upon a brief

lecturette which, he promised, would succinctly answer the

question of how Schopenhauer had helped him.

Though he had notes in his hand, he spoke without referring

to them. Staring at the ceiling, he began, «It`s not possible to

discuss Schopenhauer without starting with Kant, the philosopher

whom, along with Plato, he respected above all others. Kant, who

died in 1804 when Schopenhauer was sixteen, revolutionized

philosophy with his insight that it is impossible for us to

experience reality in any veritable sense because all of our

perceptions, our sense data, are filtered and processed through our

inbuilt neuroanatomical apparatus. All data are conceptualized

through such arbitrary constructs as space and time and—”

«Come on, Philip, get to the point,” interrupted Tony. «How

did this dude help you?»

«Wait, I`m getting there. I`ve spoken for all of three

minutes. This is not the TV news; I can`t explain the conclusions

of one of the world`s greatest thinkers in a sound bite.»

«Hey, hey, right on, Philip. I like that answer,” said Rebecca.

Tony smiled and backed off.

«So Kant`s discovery was that, rather than experience the

world as it`s really out there, we experience our own personalized

processed version of what`s out there. Such properties as space,

time, quantity, causality arein us, not out there—we impose them

on reality. But, then, whatis pure, unprocessed reality? What`s

really out there, that raw entity before we process it?That will

always remain unknowable to us, said Kant.»

«Schopenhauer—how he helped you! Remember? Are we

getting warm?» asked Tony.

«Coming up in ninety seconds. In his future work Kant and

others turned their entire attention to the ways in which we process

primal reality.

«But Schopenhauer—and see, here we are already!—took a

different route. He reasoned that Kant had overlooked a

fundamental and immediate type of data about ourselves: our own

bodies and our own feelings. We can know ourselves from

theinside, he insisted. We have direct, immediate knowledge, not

dependent on our perceptions. Hence, he was the first philosopher

to look at impulses and feelings from theinside, and for the rest of

his career he wrote extensively about interior human concerns: sex,

love, death, dreams, suffering, religion, suicide, relations with

others, vanity, self–esteem. More than any other philosopher, he

addressed those dark impulses deep within that we cannot bear to

know and, hence, must repress.»

«Sounds a little Freudian,” said Bonnie.

«The other way around. Better to say that Freud is

Schopenhauerian. So much of Freudian psychology is to be found

in Schopenhauer. Though Freud rarely acknowledged this

influence, there is no doubt he was quite familiar with

Schopenhauer`s writings: in Vienna during the time Freud was in

school, the 1860s and ‘70s, Schopenhauer`s name was on

everyone`s lips. I believe that without Schopenhauer there could

have been no Freud—and, for that matter, no Nietzsche as we

know him. In fact Schopenhauer`s influence on Freud—

particularly dream theory, the unconscious, and the mechanism of

repression—was the topic of my doctoral dissertation.

«Schopenhauer,” Philip continued, glancing at Tony and

hurrying to avoid being interrupted, «normalized my sexuality. He

made me see how ubiquitous sex was, how, at the deepest levels, it

was the central point of all action, seeping into all human

transactions, influencing even all matters of state. I believe I

recited some of his words about this some months ago.»

«Just to support your point,” Tony said, «I read in the

newspaper the other day that pornography takes in more money

than the music and the film industry combined. That`s huge.»

«Philip,” said Rebecca, «I can guess at it, but I still haven`t

heard you say exactly how Schopenhauer helped you recover from

your sexual compulsion or...uh...addiction.Okay if I use that

term?»

«I need to think about that. I`m not persuaded it`s entirely

accurate,” said Philip.

«Why?» asked Rebecca. «What you described sounds like an

addiction to me.»

«Well, to follow up on what Tony said, have you seen the

figures for males watching pornography on the Internet?»

«Are you into Internet porno?» asked Rebecca.

«I`m not, but I could have taken that route in the past—along

with the majority of men.»

«Right about that,” said Tony. «I admit it, I watch it two or

three times a week. Tell you the truth, I don`t know anyone who

doesn`t.»

«Me, too,” said Gill. «Another of Rose`s pet peeves.»

Heads turned toward Stuart. «Yes, yes, mea culpa—I`ve

been known to indulge a bit.»

«This is what I mean,” said Philip. «So is everyone an

addict?»

«Well,” said Rebecca, «I can see your point. There`s not just

the porn, but there`s also the epidemic of harassment suits. I`ve

defended quite a few in my practice. I saw an article the other day

about a dean of a major law school resigning because of a sex

harassment charge. And, of course, the Clinton case and the way

his potentially great voice has been stilled. And then look at how

many of Clinton`s prosecutors were behaving similarly.»

«Everybody`s got a dark sex life,” said Tony. «Some of it`s

like—who`s unlucky? Maybe males are just being males. Look at

me, look at my jail time in being too pushy in my demands for a

blow job from Lizzie. I know a hundred guys who did worse—and

no consequences—look at Schwarzenegger.»

«Tony, you`re not endearing yourself to the females here. 0r

at least to this female,” said Rebecca. «But I don`t want to lose

focus. Philip, go on, you`re still not making your point.»

«First of all,” Philip continued without a hitch, «rather than

tsk–tsking about all this awful depraved male behavior,

Schopenhauer two centuries ago understood the underlying reality: