Jornal de Comportamentos Aditivos, Terapia e Reabilitação

By Whom Do You Want to Visit When Life has Become Difficult: The Greek or the Jew?

Luuk L Westerhof

Whenever the professional meets a client (the other) it is not about the professional evaluating a case, but rather being in meeting respectfully with the other. Professional treatment ought not to be a meeting between expert and client, meaning, subject and object, but rather a “being together with” the other. Treatment and therapy as a part of psychological health care should be a safe place to talk about hard issues. Especially in rehab, the other is often met by an expert approach and exposed to professional saturated lingo that most clients do not understand. Not being able to comprehend of what is mediated imposes an artificial hierarchy in health care: One the professional presumably knows everything while the other allegedly knows nothing. In this article I will introduce the reader to the philosophical “Greek versus Jewish” approach with the emphasis on the Jewish approach since I prefer this stance more than the Greek since it is more humane and thus more suitable in clinical context.