No symbols, no meaning: welcome to the hermeneutic labyrinth

A genuine philosophy of becoming (and a psychoanalysis-psychotherapy inspired by it) naturally shuns symbols and inductive meaning, those conventional existential shibboleths which lure us into believing that what is impermanent can be made permanent, that what is confused can be made clear and what is mediocre can be made great. Symbols in particular are “images that suppress the noise of the senses and dip the forehead into the stream of transcendence” (Musil). Against symbols, I will argue in favour of allegory, a construct that is loyal to emergent phenomena, in life as in in therapy. Against inductive meaning, I will present the case in favour of free association and rhizomatic investigation – modes of inquiry that grant access to both practitioner and client/patient to the hermeneutic spiral or labyrinth.

Dr Manu Bazzano is an author, psychotherapist/supervisor in private practice with a background is philosophy and rock music. He is an internationally recognized lecturer and facilitator, and a Zen priest who facilitates meditation retreats and groups having studied Eastern contemplative practices since 1980. He is a visiting tutor at Cambridge University and Goldsmiths College London where he teaches existential philosophy and therapy. His latest book is Subversion and Desire: Pathways to Transindividuation (2023). Autumn 2025 will see the publication of two books: Difference and Multiplicity: Adventures in Philosophy and, as an editor, Primacy of Affect, a collections of essays from international philosophers and psychotherapists.

Host or Publisher Southern Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy