The Therapy of Education : Philosophy, Happiness and Personal Growth

The Idea Of Education As Therapy Goes Back To Ancient Times. Today, It Is Understood That The Role Of The Teacher Comprises Aspects Of Therapy Directed Towards The Child. But To What Extent Should This Relationship Be Developed, And What Are Its Concomitant Responsibilities? This Book Offers A Challenging Philosophical Approach To These Issues. By Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith, Paul Standish. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-6 Front Matter....Pages 7-7 Self-Esteem: The Inward Turn....Pages 9-24 Diffidence, Confidence and Self-belief....Pages 25-37 What Can be Said, What Can be Shown....Pages 38-50 Reading Narrative....Pages 51-71 Learning to Change....Pages 72-85 Front Matter....Pages 87-87 Practising Dying....Pages 89-108 Room for Thought....Pages 109-123 The Thoreau Strategy....Pages 124-138 A State of Abstraction: Knowledge and Contingency....Pages 139-152 Unfinished Business: Education Without Necessity....Pages 153-168 Front Matter....Pages 169-169 Beyond Cure....Pages 171-184 Narrative and Number: What Really Counts....Pages 185-202 Learning from Psychoanalysis....Pages 203-217 Enlarging the Enigma....Pages 218-233 Expectation of Return....Pages 234-240 Back Matter....Pages 241-260 The idea that education involves a kind of therapy goes back to ancient times: Socrates was, at least in part, concerned with a kind of care of the self, and Plato in his early dialogues presents education as a cure for bad intellectual and moral habits. In the modern day, where the culture of therapy is prevalent to all walks of life, it is understood that the role of the teacher comprises aspects of therapy directed towards the child. But to what extent should this relationship be developed, and what are its concomitant responsibilities? This book offers a challenging philosophical approach to the inherent problems and tensions involved with these issues. Ultimately, it raises the question - is education itself in need of 'therapy'? It is understood that the role of the teacher comprises aspects of therapy directed towards the child. But to what extent should this relationship be developed, and what are its responsibilities? This book covers the inherent problems and tensions involved with these issues, raising the question of whether education is in need of 'therapy'?