13 March 2016 Recurring Concepts of the Self: Fichte, Eastern Philosophy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy In Concerning the Difference between the Spirit and the Letter in Philosophy, Johann Gottlieb Fichte explains a process by which philosophy can be seen as an activity that raises a person s spirit to a higher level of consciousness. This process involves abstracting oneself from and inquiring about the mind s activity, so as to go through life with an understanding of relationships between things as they are interpreted and shaped by the imagination. After a person follows his or her intuition, a point is reached where nothing but the truth is left within the spirit: the pure I is the realization of this truth. In a sense, Fichte s lectures present a theory about cognition itself. While reading, I noticed that the lectures drew many parallels to ancient eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism and Taoism, and I also posited that these types of metacognition might have lent themselves to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as it developed in the 1950s and 1960s. So, I directed my research with the objective of finding how the three fields of philosophy from hundreds of years ago are still useful and relevant in the treatment of patients in behavioral psychology today. To specify, I decided I would look at a few of Fichte s key concepts that made me think of CBT. He makes the point that philosophy as an active process can improve human development, because a person experiences higher sequential levels of understanding when he or she reflects and improves upon the way the mind works. Because CBT teaches patients how to identify, challenge, and change cognitive processes, (Pearce et al. 57) I thought that Fichte s work might have been a predecessor to some therapeutic techniques. Similarly, when Fichte discussed a recognition of the whole, notions of truth, the reciprocity of relationships among
all beings, etc., I couldn t help but think of ancient eastern philosophy as having several of the same principles. In order to find out how two regions so far apart both geographically and in history might have connected and influenced those who pioneered CBT and other similar therapies, such as Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), I researched how and where each of these concepts are applied in clinical psychology. First, I focused on Fichte s idea of a productive imagination that raises feelings to consciousness, followed by abstraction and reflection. I found a famous therapeutic model that was developed by Albert Ellis, who founded REBT (this is now subsumed under the category of CBT): The ABC model asks patients to identify an activating event (A), a belief system (B), and the consequences of A through B (Murguia and Diaz 38). Essentially, this just means that a patient actively abstracts from their thought process in the moment to change their perception of the situation, and then reflects on the consequences of this process, resulting in a conscious change of behavior. CBT seems to be the psychological equivalent of Fichte s philosophy in this way. Having said that, I wondered where Fichte might have found inspiration from. What other major ideologies called for this type of self-improvement? How were they different from one another? A journal entry titled Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Search of Itself by Daniel David claimed that the most commonly remarked upon similarities are between Buddhism, Epicurean, and Stoic philosophies and CBT (81). Since I planned to look mostly at Buddhism and Taoism, this source was a bit off-topic, but it did explain that CBT lacks the major theme of suppressing desires, which is very prominent in Buddhism. David also noted that a conversation
about the similarities between CBT and various philosophies may be dividing the study into separate schools that identify either with scientific theory or philosophical beliefs (David 82). In order to hone in on Buddhism and Taoism, I thought about Fichte s view of the self. It seemed to me that his notion of the pure I was in stark contrast to Buddhism, in that it suggested that the goal of the process was uncovering one s best self. However, the third lecture proved me wrong; Fichte says that a person who philosophizes with respect to the whole strays away from purely individual pursuits and always keeps in mind that his or her actions are a small piece of a collective impact on the world that ought not be disrupted. The pure I is, in my opinion, eerily similar to the Buddhist concept of enlightenment, since Fichte describes it as a realization of eternal truth and divinity. Furthermore, the idea of harmony and cooperation is a key principle in both Taoism and Buddhism, and it is a consistent theme in CBT. In Taoism, the principle that one should strive to be in unity with nature is called wu wei, which translates roughly to action without action. Essentially, there is a natural order to all things in the world, and a person who acts in opposition to that order is not one with the Tao. Wu wei is described as a philosophical root of CBT in an article titled The Philosophical Foundations of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Edward Murguia and Kim Diaz. It suggests a flow with the universe that one can experience on a smaller scale by seeking out moments when we are one with, and become lost in, our activity (Murguia and Diaz 45). These activities, often described as meditative, are encouraged by behavioral therapists today because they are relaxing and fulfilling for patients who are generally anxious or depressed. In Buddhism, the concept of Karma assumes that all actions have a reciprocal effect, and that a person who contributes good to the world will receive good in return. Similarly,
Buddhism s support of equanimity and compassion for all beings makes apparent the insignificance of the self among all things in the universe (Murguia and Diaz 45). REBT idealizes the same thing in its various mindfulness approaches, which allow patients to escape everyday stress and displace irrational or ruminating thoughts. Even meditation, a Buddhist practice, has been popularized in the west as a mindfulness technique; it is an exercise in being at peace with one s cognitive process. Gregory J. Johanson says that mindfulness connects the mind-body interface, (173) and that is exactly what Fichte is discussing in his lectures on spirit (the productive imagination) and the letter, (the body). In keeping with the connection between mind and body, some cognitive behavioral therapists incorporate religion and spirituality into their practice. Fichte said that his approach was useful in that it was formulaic, but it differed from others because it still allowed for a concept of spirit. The same claim is echoed today by these therapists; Religiously Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a journal entry that I found, which lays out a treatment plan for depressed patients with a chronic illness. The plan incorporates explicit use of the client s own religious tradition as a major foundation to identify and replace unhelpful thoughts and behaviors to reduce depressive symptoms (Pearce et al. 58). Another source that provided information on psychotherapy claims that spiritually and/or humanistically-oriented therapy might interface with scientific concepts in a clinically relevant way (Johanson 173). Clearly, this productive merriment of philosophy and psychology is a popular subject. Perhaps this is a modern-day breakdown of Fichte s definition of spirit as a capacity for representing self-posited ideals, since a person s ideals include--and are shaped by--religion and spirituality.
Now that I knew more about the basic parallels between Fichte, various ancient philosophies, and CBT, I decided to tease out Fichte s process in comparison with the path that is encouraged by Taoism and Buddhism. Then, I could understand how these paths might lead a person through levels of understanding similar to Fichte s levels of spiritual consciousness. Buddhism, on the one hand, follows the Eightfold Path, which requires abstinence from certain actions and suppression of some inherent human desires. This seemed, to my surprise, quite the opposite of Fichte s method. Buddhism calls for such an extreme deviation from the self that, ironically, the path to self-improvement is rejecting that a self exists in the first place. The Tao, though, encourages spontaneous, natural behavior ; this seems much closer to Fichte s process of philosophizing, since he relies on intuitions (perhaps his equivalent of the nature of things) of the truth to lead to the pure I in a sort of trial-and-error system. Another way that the Buddhist principle of abstinence can be seen as contrary to CBT is modeled in Albert Ellis s concept of grandiosity (Murguia and Diaz 39). If so many everyday actions and desires are arbitrarily deemed deviant, a Buddhist would say that they must be avoided at all costs, regardless of his or her feelings about it. Ellis argues that assigning grandiose expectations to oneself and to others renders a patient unable to tolerate events that disrupt those expectations. For lack of a better term, a concept of the way things should be is unnecessarily blown out of proportion. Similarly, David Burns s principle of overgeneralization and all-or-nothing thinking shows how viewing all events as a determinant of the trajectory of one s life can render a person unhappy and depressed (Murguia and Diaz 41). Fichte, in contrast to Buddhism, would say that feelings are the source of our intuition, since we reflect upon them and understand how they may or may not lead to a sense of objective truth. CBT is more aligned
with Fichte than with Buddhism in this light; an objective truth is still the result of a personal journey that involves a constant inquiry about the way events are interpreted. Carl Rogers, the founder of the person-centered approach in psychotherapy, was especially influenced by Taoism. He sought out a way to emphasize, as Taoism does, the universality of change and the quest for the true self (Hermsen 122). Ultimately, his personal therapeutic process is one that requires the facilitator to take on Taoist ideals including wu wei. Rogers s actualizing tendency, too, draws a connection to Fichte s pure I in that it strives for self-preservation and an understanding of personal truth (Hermsen 109). Because Taoism seemed to be proving itself more similar to Fichte s writing than Buddhism, this information struck me as concrete support of psychologists vested interest in those themes within philosophy. The relationship between Fichte s lectures and the Taoist principles that inspired various client-centered techniques such as Rogers s are a perfect example of the connected triad of cognitive processes that I was hoping to find. Having decided that Taoism, Fichte, and CBT had the most frequent overlap, I read more about therapies that borrowed from Taoism. I learned that Gregory Bateson, who studied the science of various systems and incorporated his findings into cognitive science, made the assertion that,...information is coded or organized into a hierarchy of levels of organization. In psychotherapy and religion we are especially interested in high level encoding; the basic faith or philosophy found in our core organizing beliefs that control both our perception and our behavior, before we have any awareness of perceiving or responding (Nowak & Vallacher, 1998, p. 122). (Johanson 182)
This shows how Fichte s levels of spiritual consciousness are sought out by psychotherapists and other social scientists today. More importantly, though, it explains that people like Bateson are still arguing for a scientific application to philosophy, just as Fichte did over 200 years ago. All things considered, I decided that Fichte s contributions to German idealism, namely his concept of the whole, were largely in keeping with both Buddhist and Taoist philosophy. When it comes to concepts of the self, however, the Tao requires a process that mimics Fichte s philosophizing activity, and Buddhism lacks that line of thought. So, after looking at the way these philosophies manifested themselves in CBT, I then directed my research toward therapies that have been influenced by Taoism, and I found two things: for one, psychotherapy seeks out systematic processes made up of empirical stimuli that is discussed in philosophy, and second, a popular discussion about philosophy s place in CBT has existed for several years. In essence, Fichte s work may not have been directly influenced by eastern philosophy, but the ideas of the self and cognition that they both pose are reiterative throughout CBT, encouraging a variety of therapies that allow for spirituality and a goal of self-actualization. Perhaps their coincidental overlap with one another is part of the reason they are still studied and practiced today. Works Cited
David, Daniel. "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy In Search Of Itself."Journal Of Cognitive & Behavioral Psychotherapies 6.1 (2006): 81-82.Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Hermsen, Edmund. "Person-Centered Psychology And Taoism: The Reception Of Lao-Tzu By Carl R. Rogers." International Journal For The Psychology Of Religion 6.2 (1996): 107. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Johanson, Gregory J. "Psychotherapy, Science, And Spirit: Nonlinear Systems, Hakomi Therapy, And The Tao." Journal Of Spirituality In Mental Health 11.3 (2009): 172-212. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Murguia, Edward, and Kim Diaz. "The Philosophical Foundations Of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Stoicism, Buddhism, Taoism, And Existentialism." Journal Of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies 15.1 (2015): 37-50. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Pearce, Michelle J., et al. "Religiously Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A New Method Of Treatment For Major Depression In Patients With Chronic Medical Illness." Psychotherapy 52.1 (2015): 56-66. PsycARTICLES. Web. 9 Mar. 2016.