Fascinating Reading from Jay Adams in 1970
I’ve read Jay Adams’s Competent to Counsel several times over the past 50 years. Here’s something I had not thought a lot about until now:
Jay’s view and use of neuroscience.
Perhaps my past two years of examining neuroscience has alerted me to this topic.
“The Nervous System Corresponds to the Nouthetic Approach”
On pages 96-97 of Competent to Counsel, Adams uses his understanding of 1970s neuroscience (“the nervous system”) to say: “The Nervous System Corresponds to the Nouthetic Approach” (p. 96/Header).
Adams proposes that there are two sides to the human nervous system. One side is emotional and involuntary. The other side is associated with problem-solving and voluntary action and has to do with behavior (96).
Then Adams concludes with this summary implication for nouthetic counseling from his understanding of 1970s neuroscience/nervous system studies:
“While there is no direct voluntary access to the emotions, the emotions can be reached indirectly through the voluntary system, because extensive fiber overlappings in the cortex allow unified correlation of the two systems. Voluntary behavioral alterations will lead to involuntary emotional changes. It is important to understand, therefore, that feelings flow from actions” (Adams, Competent to Counsel, p. 97).
What Most Intrigues Me
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