Psychotherapy and human freedom: A discussion from Ortega y Gasset

Abstract

Considering that the questions that the psychotherapy face imply the relation of man with his circumstantialities, this article aims to bring contributions of the thought of the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset, who finds as primary and basic fact the joint existence of one self or the subjectivity and its world. Life, therefore, meets in between these two inseparable dimensions. The primate of the human life, in the Orteguian philosophy, points out to a man in a condition of freedom and constant what-to-do pursuit, given its lack of aprioristic identity. This lack translates the conception of man as a work in progress - drama - that is to construct itself, in one interminable task to become in the meeting with reality. The self of the man, as a freedom project, is fulfilled in the relation with the circumstance, fecundating, with its conscience, the world of sense. It is for man to be operative, respondent and responsible: it is, therefore, the exercise of freedom. This conception indicates an active role of the customer in therapeutical situation, becoming this invitation the reflection of vital what-to-do pursuit and its alterations, with sights to a more authentic existence. The proposal of Ortega y Gasset is that an understanding or reason model is restored considering life as a trajectory with constant reasons of choices, established in the obligation with the individual freedom and the singularity of each other.

Key words: psychotherapy, freedom, Ortega y Gasset.