Deterministic Therapy

What would psychotherapy look like if a therapist and their client work together with the shared belief that free will does not exist?

Determinism, as a philosophical concept, has been a feature of eastern religious traditions, philosophical debate, and scientific exploration for thousands of years.

From a contemporary perspective, though, the concept has emerged in the cultural stream with renewed interest as a result of recent scientific discoveries and a few prominent voices.

The unequivocal leader of the contemporary movement against free will is the multi-hyphenate scientist, Robert Sapolosky. The Stanford professor has seemingly made it his life’s mission to preach the gospel of hard determinism using whatever media platform available to him. He’s written books, produced a podcast, released free lectures, and done countless interviews on the subject.

Sapolsky’s commitment to disseminating his philosophy as widely as possible underscores his belief that a world without free will is worth exploring. And if you can’t tell, I agree with him.

In order to approach my original question with some level of seriousness and relevance to the modern discourse, we’ll operate from the basis of Sapolsky’s own words.

On a podcast with Neil Degrase Tyson, he distilled his case against free will, saying, “From the stuff that went on a second ago back to when you were a fetus and everything in between…We are nothing more than the biology over which we had no control and its interactions with the environment over which we had no control. And that's why we are who we are.”

Essentially, everything we see, feel, say and do each moment is determined by an interconnected chain of causality that goes back to the beginning of our universe (and maybe even further).

We cannot interrupt the chain of causality using our own free will because the interruption, itself, is also pre-determined by an innumerable series of preceding events.

For example, if you intentionally decide to express your free will at an ice cream shop and order a completely random flavor rather than the one you originally craved, your decision still resulted from a series of causes outside your control. Maybe you wanted to prove your free will at the ice cream shop because you read a blog post earlier that day, which triggered your rebellious nature, which you possess because of your upbringing, which you experienced because of your parents’ attraction to one another once upon a time, and on and on. As Robert Sapolsky likes to say, “it’s turtles all the way down.”

Shifting back to my original question, let’s say a hard-determinist named Tom schedules a therapy session with a like-minded therapist named Pam. The session rolls around, and Tom tells his therapist about an ongoing intimacy issue in his marriage that causes him to feel ashamed and depressed.

If they both acknowledge that Tom’s relationship issue has arisen due to a series of underlying causes that were inevitable, Pam might encourage Tom to let go of any self-judgment that goes with those “if only I had…” or “why couldn’t she be more…” kind of thoughts. After all, Tom and his partner did not choose to be who they were when the issue arose or at any point during the ensuing conflict.

From this perspective, the shame and depression he may feel is the by-product of our culturally-constructed belief that he and his partner have free will.

With a non-judgmental perspective, Pam and Tom might discuss the issue more objectively and with a constructive approach toward creating better outcomes for Tom and his partner.

For the sake of further exploration, let’s say the ongoing issue in his marriage stems from Tom’s intermittent impotence together with his partner’s fluctuating interest in having sex. Pam and Tom would likely begin their exploration by tracking the history of the couple’s intimacy challenges. In doing so, they might entertain a number of data points, including both Tom and his wife's subjective accounts of the problem, biological information from doctors, and contemporary cultural expectations of relationship norms.

After gathering historical data, Pam and Tom might identify a number of underlying biological, psychological, and cultural causes. Then, the balance of the work would be experimentation.

Given the ever-changing, interdependent nature of intimacy problems, Pam might suggest a multidisciplinary intervention strategy and adjust the plan accordingly based on the results.

To start, while Tom continues to build his self-esteem and confidence in individual counseling, he and his wife might try couples counseling to establish more open and honest communication about their intimacy needs.

Furthermore, they might explore their diet, medication and exercise routines with the help of a doctor to address potential underlying causes. And as time goes on, they would access the cause and effect relationship of their strategies and adjust the variables that don’t seem to contribute to positive outcomes.

Ultimately, I believe deterministic therapy would rely more heavily on the scientific method as a process to create better outcomes for clients. More specifically, the therapist and the client would place a greater emphasis on collecting the most accurate data possible using radical honesty and collateral sources, like doctors and close friends, rather than simply the client’s firsthand accounts and the therapist’s interpretations. After all, shame is irrational in a world without free will.

Then, after tracing potential underlying causes with a variety of data sources and clarifying desired outcomes, the client would experiment with behavioral changes that address the problematic cause and effect patterns. Naturally, the therapist would work alongside the client using their psychology background in collecting data, identifying desired changes, and supporting behavioral modification.

While there are aspects of this thought experiment that may seem impersonal in our culture, such as using collateral sources in therapy, it seems apparent to me that change is needed to improve mental health outcomes in our society.

Most importantly, many of us feel shame and hide parts of ourselves, even from therapists, because we are told from a very young age that we can control who we are. From this perspective, the myth of free will is actually hindering peoples’ growth in therapy. If, on the other hand, we accept that we are simply the product of variables that are outside our control, we might embrace the opportunity to look at ourselves as clearly and honestly as possible.