RE: The Socratic Method and psychotherapy

Hi Henry

I read your article posted on The Alfred Adler Institute of San Francisco home page. As a student Adlerian who has studied mainly though the writings of Dreicurs', I though it is stimulating, because this can be one of the major differences between "classical" and "Dreicursian" approaches.

Dreicurs frequently pointed out the usefulness of confronting the hidden goal by guessing. He reasoned that this method is good because 1) when confronted in an appropriate way, wrong guess does not harm the client, 2) client are often unable to realize the hidden goal. Indeed I saw several psychotherapy shows on TV or radio in which the therapists force the clients to reach the conclusion because they want to finish the show in certain time. In these shows, although the therapists do not to give the clients any answer, the clients reach unsatisfactory conclusion because of lack of the time. I think in these occasions the therapists should have been successful if they utilized the Dreicurs' method.

My question here is whether you think the Dreicurs' method of guessing and confronting is useful to save the time to let the clients acknowledge their hidden goal. To me, it seems foolish not to use a tool which is available to a therapist.

Thanks

Nam

Replies:

When to Disclose the Client's Hidden Goal, by Henry Stein, 4/26/96 Dr. Dreikurs' &lllaos;guessing&lllaos;, by Ronald E. Allen, 1/2/97 Dreikurs' Theoretical Position, by Henry Stein, 1/5/97 Please Help Me With Dreikurs, by Stacey Mathieson, 9/30/97 Untitled, by Rob McGarva, 9/30/97 Thankyou Rob McGarva, by Stacey Mathieson, 10/5/97 Re: Adlerian Psychology in the Classroom, by Henry Stein, 10/3/97 Additional Adlerian Resources for Educators, by Henry Stein, 10/4/97 With Many Thanks, Dr. Stein, by Stacey Mathieson, 10/5/97 Re:Please Help Me With Dreikurs, by Sherry Ittner, 10/25/00 Too much, too soon; another factor?, by Dan Bollinger, 9/21/98 Confronting Clients, by Carmen Knowles, 4/28/96 RE: confronting clients, by Nam, 5/3/96 More on teaching Lifestyle, by John Gessner, 5/7/96 Doing-a-Lifestyle vs. Study-Analysis, by Henry Stein, 5/15/96 Doing Vs. Being, by J. Gessner, 5/15/96 Dissolving the Style of Life, and Meta-Motivation, by Henry Stein, 5/17/96 Life Style, by Dale Pietrzak, 10/9/96 Adler Schools, by Carmen Knowles, 8/7/96 Adlerian School in Chicago, by Dennis Anderson, 9/19/96 Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, by Mat McFadden, 12/26/96 the benefit of the client?, by t.cummings, 5/14/96 Confronting or not , by Carmen Knowles, 8/7/96 Encourage or Confront, by tcumming, 2/16/97

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