Here is one of my tools for working philosophically with groups. Can you imagine what happened on that sunny Monday evening of June 2023, in the philosopher’ group, where people gathered to discuss about good living and the critical examination of one’s living and the obstacles to these two?
The full twenty-page article that represents an answer to the question above is freely downloadable from the IRCEP website. If you are a teacher, you might be inspired on your next class activity. If you are a medical professional, you might find some ideas about the role of play in the tough life of your patients. If you are just someone out there reading a few lines on a break from your daily schedule, you may find some thoughts on playing philosophically with your family members, your friends, your co-workers.
How I began playing philosophically
Frankly I think I started in childhood. But my most recent memory of a new beginning in philosophical play is from 2016. That year I had been working as a systemic family psychotherapist for four years and it was time to pursue a masters program, in order to be able to advance professionally. It had been quite challenging for me as a beginning therapist to handle sessions with families and couples — they were very messy, they shouted at the same time, they did not listen, they twisted each other’s words, they would keep reacting to what was not said and remaining ignorant of such important bits that were feebly mentioned or poorly articulated as they had never been said to anyone before… And I was getting a lot of supervision to gather my strength and my motivation to continue in what seemed to be a quite difficult profession, in a country that’s been constantly occupied and divided, isolated and deprived, will poor education, poor infrastructure and lots of resentment in people’s overly kind hearts. So I heard about this master program in philosophical counselling, at the West University of Timisoara, where the learning has been focused on developing good sense, reason and critical thinking skill, while exploring the world history of philosophical ideas. I had attended many psychotherapy training programs and I realised that too much attention was directed to the pathology — that is to the uncommon logic of individual emotions. We had found ways to learn about how people were creatively structuring their lives in response to suffering, discomfort, comfort and pleasure and how they were dying to live well. With all the struggle to these apparently positive goals, life’s still not been getting any better.
Many of us therapists, much like our clients, were in dire need of adequate guidance towards mental and spiritual health. But no one had any magic spell that cures all ills. We needed to be taught to look around us and within us, to see things and to value them in order to benefit from their existence in relationship with us and they to benefit in relationship with us. Yet, we were so obsessed with rescuing, repairing, curing and securing, because we were under huge pressure to bring realism to a population that passively prayed for miracles, in an era where customer satisfaction defines what’s good and what’s not. So this philosophical journey, across space, time and culture, has been quite beneficial. I experienced the permission to think, the permission to decide, the permission to be mistaken, the permission to live, the permission to care less and to care better, the permission to be unimportant, as well as the permission to matter, to be as I am. It is not too common (but it is healthy) to meet your enemy and to find that he’s a friend.
This program is currently accepting admissions from people from all over the world. It is accessible, challenging and fun. You learn to play philosophically and to facilitate philosophical play for others as well. Have a look here and see its visit card. I’m still in contact with the community and I still go to classes even though I have graduated. So there’s good chance we’ll meet in its contexts of exercise and provoke each other’s thinking.
I’ve dedicated this newsletter to promoting education. We need it so much and we are so scared of it because to learn something new requires one to admit to one’s ignorance. Learning to think is like learning to make wooden wheels to carriages — no one can actually teach you, they just give you the tools and the raw material and you start chopping, hurting your fingers, making a mess, trying again with some quality guidance from others who’ve been doing this longer and see what you’re going through, etc. No one can be forced to learn anything either. That’s just not how the brain works. This is why, as Kierkegaard recommended, when you wish to helps someone advance on their learning path, you need to start where they are, not from your apparently superior knowledge. Guess why he proposed that!