Philosophical errors and unintended harms in recrafting the foundation of counseling and psychotherapy: Commentary on Sue et al. (2024).

Key Points

Abandoning enlightenment ideals in counseling risks worsening prejudicial actions and harms to the profession.
Faulty assumptions about enlightenment philosophy could misallocate responsibility for systemic racism in psychotherapy.
Proposed alternatives like relativism and subjectivism may not address the individual roots of racism in therapy.
Individual therapist actions are more significant factors in addressing racism than philosophical foundations of counseling.

Abstract

In this commentary, we address some of the faulty assumptions regarding Enlightenment philosophy that Sue et al. (see record 2025-04512-010) claim are at the root of systemic racism in counseling and psychotherapy (C&P). They argued that Enlightenment concepts-universalism, individualism, objectivism, and empiricism-be replaced by relativism, collectivism, subjectivism, and experientialism. We describe the potential harms that could result from the abandonment of Enlightenment ideals, including worsening prejudicial actions. We conclude that racism in C&P is more likely accounted for by individual therapist actions rather than a result of the philosophical foundations of C&P. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

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Philosophical errors and unintended harms in recrafting the foundation of counseling and psychotherapy: Commentary on Sue et al. (2024).

Key Points

Abstract

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