Abstract

This dissertation interprets Wittgenstein's conception of philosophy as pathological along with the advocated therapeutic response. ;Chapter One gives an account of Wittgenstein's public image of language and of the passages now known as the private language argument. Next, Chapter Two reviews: Louis Sass' interpretation of Wittgenstein's philosopher-solipsist in the private language argument alongside Paul Daniel Schreber's autobiographical account of schizophrenia; and Wittgenstein's long-standing influence on the Palo Alto Group's and offshoots' use of paradoxes for therapeutic change, best known through the therapist Paul Watzlawick . Chapter Three shows how therapeutic philosophy may inhabit the normative aspects of Wittgenstein's public picture of language, accounting both for Wittgenstein's debt to Freud's psychoanalysis and for his own very different therapeutic maxims. Chapter Four goes on a fourfold tack and attempts to show why a public image of language altogether devoid of the private may not be rationally defensible. This chapter draws on: first, examples from a fragmented picture of language where language authorship may be at issue ; second, why Wittgenstein's introduction of therapy into philosophy relates at least partially to a self-professed fear of madness and things felt creeping in the shadows ; third, how therapeutic issues may override epistemic concerns, responding to Wittgenstein's reading of Freud discussed in Chapter Three, to striking a balance between public object and private subject, to the therapeutic use of the symbol, play, and its dramaturgy; fourth and finally, some pointers towards an anti-private language argument that arise out of our discussion of public-private language issues. Chapter Five deals with two loose ends that remain at the end of our discussion. It addresses Freud's assessment of philosophy and philosophy's reception of Wittgenstein's therapeutic method. It also puts forth some brief concluding remarks that circumscribe the crossover of philosophy and psychopathology, which is mirrored in Wittgenstein's picture of language that can both seduce and save us