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The Cure of Souls is concerned with the hard times in which contemporary psychotherapists find themselves. Caught in the snare of political, bureaucratic, and economic issues on one side, accused of clinical inefficacy and social irrelevancy on the other, psychotherapy today is in a serious crisis as to its defining identity and the intentionality of its mission.
In order to competently address these issues, Woolfolk contends, therapists need to recognize “that all therapeutic systems contain disguised ideologies” (p. 35), that is to say, therapeutic practices significantly differ from one another less importantly because of contrasting clinical techniques than to their philosophical assumptions, which I term “ontological concerns.” Ontological concerns refer to a priori notions about the essential nature of existence. These assumptions, as they appear to defy verification, are based on belief rather than empirical evidence.
Psychotherapy theory consists of two interlocking dimensions. At its core there are ontological notions of human nature, which describe the presumed social and psychological principles that govern the vicissitudes of human existence. Second, based on these core notions, clinical theory consists of methodology and techniques to liberate the patient from dysfunctional emotions, cognitive, and behavioral patterns by a delineation of what the patient must do to constructively influence his or her behavior and that of others. Obviously, efficacious clinical treatment requires ontological notions of human behavior crucial to enlightened functioning. Thus, according to Woolfolk, “in both treatment and diagnosis, values are unavoidable” (p. 35).
Throughout their history psychotherapists have debated what should be the ontological basis for a sound inquiry of human behavior. In its early history, following Freud, most opted for a