Diamond, PhD, author, Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity “This remarkable book applies the wisdom of Zhuangzi, one of the two Taoist Sages, to contemporary psychotherapy, especially existentially-oriented approaches. While there is certainly value in Western treatment methods, the philosophically informed clinical wisdom of existential therapy, like the profound spiritual wisdom of Taoism, provides a timely, much-needed corrective counterbalance to the alarmingly lopsided and dangerous trend in psychotherapy today.” -Stephen A.
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Yang, demonstrates the inherent philosophical intersection existing between ancient Taoism and the improvisational practice of contemporary existential therapy, offering an alternative view of how clinicians can more creatively and effectively encourage clients or patients to find their own way in life. In ways not unlike Alan Watts’ Psychotherapy East and West, this diverse collection of essays, expertly edited by Dr. Most therapists these days are taught to see their role (and themselves) as being little more than technicians, tasked with reducing, “treating” or “curing” the confusion and suffering of those seeking their assistance by rotely applying predetermined techniques.
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Tragically, psychotherapy today has become enamored with a hypermedicalized, materialistic, heavily pharmacological, strictly symptom-focused, intervention-driven, manualized approach designed to rapidly dampen down what renowned existential therapist Rollo May referred to as the daimonic.
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“Despite significant differences between Western psychotherapy and Eastern philosophy, the nonjudgmental cultivation of presence and discernment of subjectivity known in existential therapy as the phenomenological method is strikingly similar to the traditional practices of meditation and mindfulness intrinsic to the teachings of Zen Buddhism and, as this volume emphasizes in particular, the Taoism of Lao-Tzi and, later, Chuang-Tzu (Zhuangzi).