Socratic Method: What It Is And How It Is Applied In Psychology
We all have a lot of questions in our heads that we would like to find solutions to. And finding an answer to them is complex, to say the least. We often look to others for the solution, even though what we really need is to find our own answer.
When it comes to big philosophical topics such as ethics or morality or even at the level of therapy, a method whose origins date back to Ancient Greece is useful. Specifically, to the figure of Socrates. This is the Socratic method which we are going to talk about throughout this article.
We understand the Socratic method as a methodology through which it is proposed that human beings are capable of maturing and mobilizing their resources and reflecting on the problems that torment them. The objective of the Socratic method or Socratic dialogue is not to provide an answer to the questions of others, but that of encouraging this person to be able to deepen their own psyche and reflection in order for this to develop its own knowledge by itself.
In itself, the Socratic method consists rather of a dialogue between two or more people, in which one guides the other, through a series of questions and using resources such as irony, towards the resolution of your doubts and conflicts This guide is merely assistive, and in the end it is the subject who finds the solution for himself. In fact, technically it is not even necessary for you to give an answer, and it is also valid for you to admit ignorance regarding a specific fact or aspect.
Generally, the questions that arise from the subject are answered by another question from the person who is applying the method, in such a way that the thinking of the subject to whom it is applied is guided in a specific direction without modifying their ways of thinking directly. .
So, The main thing in this method is the use of inductive questions, making use of own resources in the desired direction. Regarding the type of questions in question, they tend to be relatively simple, based on three main particles: What, How and Why.
The basic operation is to first choose a specific topic or statement that is considered true and examine it little by little in such a way that it is falsified and refuted and subsequently generate new knowledge regarding the topic in question.
The origin: maieutics
The origin of the Socratic method is found in the figure from whom it takes its name: Socrates, the Greek philosopher This author developed a dialectical method with the purpose of helping to find one’s own individual truth, or even defending minority positions.
The process was relatively simple to explain, although its implementation is more complicated than it appears: Firstly, irony was used in order to make the student or person with whom one was talking, by asking him a series of questions regarding the meaning of a previously chosen premise so that little by little he began to doubt it and even ended up admitting ignorance regarding the subject and could even reduce it to absurdity.
After that, maieutics, or the Socratic method itself, was used: the interrogator went on to guide the interlocutor’s thought process through dialogue and asking relatively simple questions, proposing and using the subject’s resources to generate a new truth or opinion more typical of the individual regarding the premise in question, a new knowledge of what is really known.
Application of the Socratic method in psychotherapy
The Socratic method, although it has ancient origins, is still valid today, in different forms. The world of education is one of the areas in which it can be applied, another of which is the health sector. Within the latter, We must highlight its use within clinical and health psychology
The application of the Socratic method is common in psychotherapy, regardless of the theoretical model, since it is proposed as a way to mobilize and take advantage of the patient’s own resources to achieve improvement.
One of the psychological currents that uses it the most is cognitive-behavioral, being the most easily identifiable example of the use of the Socratic method. questioning maladaptive beliefs: the subject exposes a strongly-rooted thought or belief that generates suffering or discomfort (or alters his behavior by generating it in others), such as the idea of being useless.
The therapist can investigate what it means to be useless, in what situations this idea appears, what consequences being useless would have or the fears that may lie behind it, until reaching a point where the subject could not make a deeper introspection (to a large extent, Techniques such as the downward arrow are used, which seek to delve deeper and deeper into what is behind a specific thought or belief). After this, the session could be redirected by asking if there could be alternative interpretations and subsequently the patient would be sought to reconstruct his vision of reality in a more adaptive way with his own resources. It is a process linked to cognitive restructuring.
Likewise, another type of therapy that uses the Socratic method is logotherapy, within the phenomenological-existentialist models. In this case, the Socratic method is used as one of the main techniques used to reactivate the patient’s resources and achieve meaning in her life. In this sense, it helps the subject to self-discover, generate alternatives, be responsible for their own choices and try to transcend. Values and perceptions are worked on, among many other concepts.
These are just two examples of therapies that use the Socratic method. However, its use is very common in practically all types of therapies within clinical psychology.
