In life, therapy, and in leadership, we nurture others as they are

According to Arthur Schopenhauer, one of the most comprehensive philosophers of modern philosophical history, our decisions are not free, nor do we have anything like a freedom of will. Schopenhauer argued that the very substance, very “stuff” of the world and of ourselves is the will – an abstract, self-sufficient will that manifests itself in a variety of phenomena. A person’s individual will is an instantiation of the general, worldly will. However, when the general will manifests in specific phenomena, including the personal will, it increasingly assumes structure and form, which abrogates its freedom. In the human person, the form will takes is character. Every person acts and decides based on their character and the motives of a particular moment. There is a subjective sense of uncertainty, an experience of the person’s ability to decide “one way of the other”, however, according to Schopenhauer, the person can only will what one’s character and motives determine, and thus every decision is determined in advance, much like a swinging stick’s falling to one side eventually is determined from the start by the force of the swing, resistance of the environment and various others factors, although to the observer it seems as though the swinging stick could fall to either side of the swing. The situation is the same with human decisions. Thus, what we work with in developing persons through psychotherapy, or personal relationships, or leadership in organizations, is leading people through the process of self-discovery, namely of their learning about their own character. According to Schopenhauer, when we mature in life, we learn who we are. Our character manifests itself through various motives and circumstances. A consequence of this is that leadership does not involve changing people, but nurturing their self-discovery through an organic leadership community, much the same as the process of psychotherapy involves leading people through a process of self-discovery while empowered by an organic and supportive therapeutic community with the therapist/leader. See my video on this: