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
вЂdual 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 вЂ70s, 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:
