Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Socratic Method in Teaching, Supervision, and Psychotherapy
Prof. Dr. James Overholser
ABSTRACT:
Recent work on the Socratic method involves an integration of ancient philosophy (Jowett, 1892/1937) with contemporary psychology (Overholser, 2010; 2018). The Socratic method can be used to guide discussions in teaching, supervision, and psychotherapy. The Socratic method relies on five process parameters: systematic questioning, inductive reasoning, a sincere disavowal of knowledge, and guided discovery, and the use brief interactive segments. In addition, the Socratic method often focuses on four content areas: universal definitions, self-improvement, demonstrations of virtue in everyday life, and core beliefs. The present paper explains the common usage and potential benefits of using the Socratic method in different settings. When teaching at the collegiate level, the instructor can shift away from the role of expert who poses fact-based questions and shifts to a more interactive style laced with thought-provoking questions (Overholser, 1992). In the supervision of college students, the supervisor can bring an inquisitive and collaborative style that promotes critical thinking in the trainee (Overholser, 1991; 2022). While balancing experience, wisdom, and modesty, a supervisor helps to guide the collaborative search for solutions. While conducting psychotherapy sessions, the therapist may rely on published guidelines or past experiences with other clients, and it can become easy to shift into a dogmatic style based on psychoeducational training. Instead, the Socratic method can help clients to learn from their own life experiences and focus on changes that will promote their own self-improvement (Overholser & Beale, 2023). The process relies on lessons from ancient philosophy integrated with research from contemporary psychology.
keywords: guided discovery, inductive reasoning, self-improvement, systematic questions, teaching