Dr.
Glasser’s work is a companion to his earlier work Choice Theory, a collection
of case studies useful to practitioners already familiar with Glasser’s reality
therapy and choice therapy and interested in using those principles of judging
and listening with clients. As such, Counseling with Choice Theory cannot
be said to stand on its own as an independent work for general readers but only
for those who own and use the earlier work.

William
Glasser has proposed a choice theory to account for psychological pain,
distress and dysfunction that he believes displaces even the distinction mental
illness itself. Patients are not in any case sick, he maintains: they make bad
choices based mostly on inadequate or terribly unrewarding relationships. In
this view of the human being, psychological suffering in all its various forms
reduces to choices (often complex) and coping with others in relationships. Not
only does Glasser rule out unconscious motives and conflicts of the sort made
famous by Freud or Jung and their followers, but he also disenchants us from
the view that any psychological failings are physical or biochemical in nature.

It is a
sweeping theory, a stance for a new era perhaps. But whatever evidence there
may be to support this view is not contained in Counseling with Choice
Theory We read the cases of Lucy, Jeff, George and perhaps a dozen others,
follow the dialogue between counselor and client, without getting any closer to
answers about whether the overarching choice theory itself is fully viable.  This book isn’t really about the whole
theory–it’s an application to client discussions of Glasser’s viewpoint and
his implicit rules of discourse.

  
Nonetheless, choice theory in a limited context–that is, not overturning
all psychotherapy– is an appropriate, rational paradigm for creating a useful
dialectic with a client. One can see these discussions modeled in Glasser’s
case studies.

Doubt will
remain about whether psychoanalysis, psycho-active drugs, and the medical model
in psychology generally can be dismissed and discarded; there is little doubt
that more room for choice in resolving human distress and pain must be created
by all practitioners. William Glasser has contributed cases that effectively
guide couselors in the management and elucidation of client choices and their
effects.

©
2002 David Wolf

David M.
Wolf, M.A. studied philosophy of science for the M.A. with Prof. David
Hawkins at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and also read advanced
philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. His undergraduate education in
Philosophy was guided by Prof. Mason Gross. Wolf is certified in philosophic
counseling with the American Philosophic Practitioners Assoc. and earns his
living in management consulting, where he is distinguished in writing
strategic plans and advising in organization development and career
counseling.

Categories: Psychotherapy