As an illustration of this, a psychological construct that I discuss in both Hunting Magic Eels and The Shape of Joy is what psychologists call existential significance or cosmic mattering, or more simply mattering. The word mattering points to our value, significance, and worth. And the words existential and cosmic point to the metaphysical grounding of this value, what I call an "invisible fact" in The Shape of Joy.
The term "invisible fact" looks oxymoronic, but I coined it to be a provocation. By "invisible" I mean not empirical or scientific. Value isn't anything that registers on scientific measuring devices. You can't weigh value on a scale, measure it with calipers, or detect it with an x-ray. Value is invisible. And yet, when it comes to mattering, your value must be asserted as simple reality and obvious truth. Your worth isn't a fiction. Your worth is a fact. And it's this factualness, this enduring givenness, which allows mattering to stabilize our mental health. For if my value is simply the truth about me, this mattering exists independently of my shame and failure. I might not feel like I matter, but that doesn't affect the fact that I matter. As an invisible fact about my reality, mattering isn't anything that can change. My mattering simply is.
Mattering illustrates what I mean by living in relationship to value, along with its mental health benefits. But mattering is only one illustration. Consider the cosmic mattering of other people. Because human persons have worth and value they are due recognition, respect, and care. And since people matter how we treat each other matters. Due to the invisible facts surrounding us we find ourselves embedded in a matrix of moral duties and ethical obligations. Again, these duties and obligations are invisible. But that doesn't mean they aren't real. Everyone assumes moral realism. We all believe in moral facts. Steal a person's wallet and they'll tell you to stop. And if you ask them why, they'll share a moral fact with you: "Because it is wrong." And if you disagreed, they'd be as puzzled as if you denied the law of gravity. Like our mattering, goodness simply is.
In Hunting Magic Eels I describe our relation to value as "the primacy of the invisible," a phrase borrowed from the late pope Benedict. Science is important, but what is primary in our lives are the invisible facts. Our mattering. The mattering of others. Our moral concerns. The values that inform how I am pursuing a significant and meaningful life. This is precisely why the New Atheists floundered. In their scientistic materialism, the New Atheists denied the factuality of the invisible and in a stroke evacuated the world of all that was essential and primary in our lives--the ground of personal dignity, the worth of others persons, the demands of moral obligations, and the source of meaning and significance.
Now, I've shared all this before. These are familiar beats I've discussed in this space and in my last two books. This post is just a review to set up the question and exploration of this series. I want to talk about value and therapy. More precisely, the place of value in therapy.
Specifically, if it is true that we flourish in relation to value, a relation I've re-sketched above, then wouldn't it stand to reason that the pursuit of mental health would involve an exploration of value? It would seem so. And yet, as broadly practiced therapy presumes to be value-free. This flows from the non-judgmental posture of therapy, expressing "unconditional positive regard" toward a client no matter their self-selected and self-directed vision of happiness. Therapy isn't moral education or direction. And it is unethical for a therapist to impose their own values upon a client.
So, do you see the tension here?
Value is good for us, but value isn't anything a therapist can suggest or impose upon a client.
What can be done about this issue? Well, the most common thing therapists do is explore the values of the client and work from there. But upon a closer investigation, which we'll do in this series, things aren't so clearcut and simple.
