University of Virginia Library

No 'Magic' At Counseling Center

—ed.

Freedom is a precious, if relative,
thing, at least it is to human beings who
have felt the dimmest possibility of its
realization. Even to those individuals who
find the comforts of life ever available
like so many some tablets, the right to
choose one's own path to hell or glory
has an appeal matched only by the
pressing needs of basic survival. Once a
man senses his "I" ness, his individual self,
his essential aloneness, he begins an
inevitable conflicting course through life.
The conflict approximates an approach/
avoidance condition wherein Self and
society play out the game of individuation
versus amalgamation. Man often
looks within for understanding and some
answers to his paradoxical strivings for
oneness and unity with the cosmos,
eternity, mankind, or God on the one
hand and a relatively independent,
individual personality on the other.

Ignorance is a worthy adversary and
stands as one of the substantial barriers to
the evolution and nurturance of the
freedom to pursue individual destiny. I
firmly believe that the job of a counseling
psychologist in a University Counseling
Center is to develop his own mixture of
art, science, and humaneness to create an
environment wherein a human being can
optimally confront his paradoxical self-condition:
An environment eminently
suited for the reduction of ignorance and
the expansion of personal freedom; an
environment which does not exist in the
society at large.

Peculiar Ignorance

The peculiar kind of ignorance against
which the counselor and student client
contend is the stuff of bias and prejudice
- the defense against reality, the
pervasive desire to leave unanswered
Shakespeare's question of "whether to
suffer or oppose the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune." Defensive, self
-inflicted blindness carefully or precariously
maintained from the experiences
of childhood and adolescence, channels
the acceptance and rejection of information
as well as shapes the value of
communication received. Thus, to "know
thyself" is literally the most effective,
even if imperfect, means to test individual
reality for what concretely and
mystically is - to test what temporal or
enduring position is "nobler in the mind"
- to decide or reflect upon a course of
action as a relatively free, yet interdependent
human being.

Stabilized Impediment

A counselor is a relatively lucky
fellow. His students often come to him
singly or in groups because of a deeply
felt desire to understand what is going on
within themselves. Few teachers in a large
university ever face a class so motivated
to investigate an academic discipline. On
the other hand, what instructor ever
began his introductory class with the
remark, "Welcome, I'm pleased to meet
you - all 100 of you. What is it that
brings you here today? May I help you in
some way?" Nor does he often conclude
the class at some indefinite time with a
request, "Please reflect on what you have
learned about this discipline and its
relation to other areas of knowledge. Put
into writing what you understand of this
area of man's endeavor. Finally, indicate
the facets that appear hazy or problematic
- questions that you might wish to
pursue further in the future."

It is probable that the very structures
we erect to stabilize society also act as
impediments to the society's growth.
These structures, (let's take familiar
examples, close at hand, such as Universities,
academic disciplines, course
requirements, etc.,) have parallels in our
individual lives as well. Each person, by
his very efforts to constitute a "self"
apart from his object world, creates what
he believes are necessary limits on his
freedom. At first, a child does not
understand that his family is not "the
whole world." It is his world made more
understandable by the development of
language skills, and he tries to come to
terms with it. For awhile he invests
absolute power in his parents and they, in
turn (hopefully), confirm him as a
worthwhile and lovable person. They also
intentionally, and unwittingly, teach him
their necessarily limited view of the
world: what values are to be held to have