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Wittgenstein and the Expression of Feelings in Psychotherapy
Author(s) -
Purton Campbell
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
philosophical investigations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.172
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1467-9205
pISSN - 0190-0536
DOI - 10.1111/phin.12029
Subject(s) - feeling , expression (computer science) , psychology , psychotherapist , epistemology , psychoanalysis , social psychology , philosophy , computer science , programming language
Effective psychotherapy is often held to involve the expression of feelings. Within the person‐centred approach, this view has been especially emphasised by C arl R ogers and E ugene G endlin. I am concerned with the question of why the expression of feelings can be therapeutically effective. Many psychotherapists picture feelings as “inner experiences” for which the client tries to find appropriate words, but the difficulties with this picture, which were highlighted by W ittgenstein, seem to call for a very different approach. Here, I develop a Wittgensteinian account of the expression of feelings that avoids the difficulties to which W ittgenstein draws attention.