- Professor Roth:
I find it extremely shocking to hear how their arguments are virtually solely comprised of humanistic, dualistic approaches. Nearly 90% of the philosophers I deal with are like that. As I said, I am often invited to discussions, and I am always shocked by psychiatrists and psychologists. Let me share a brief example: I participated in the Lindau Psychotherapy Weeks in Lindau by Lake Constance for 12 years, giving a multitude of lectures and seminars on the mind, psyche and brain. At the closing event after 12 years, we held a discussion in a small group in which I was joined by some psychiatrists and psychotherapists. At some point, reluctance started to rear its head – in a large auditorium of 400, 500 people – and someone called out to me and Professor Cierpka, the director, and said: “That’s all well and good – so are we all supposed to become brain researchers now? We’re human scientists, after all. The mind has nothing to do with the brain, nothing to do with psyche either; it has nothing to do with the brain!” This was met with frenetic applause – and it was then that I knew something that I can tell you is definitely true: almost all psychiatrists – and fewer, but still many, psychotherapists – take a solely humanistic approach, at least where their work is concerned.