Directory of the Bnei Shalom Network

Leah Zitter, M.A.

Logical Self-Discovery

What is Logical Self-Discovery?

Being a qualified counselor and having myself experienced several kinds of therapy, I soon realized that Psychotherapy (including clinical counseling) - despite its benefits - is primarily directive and interpretative. (What about Rogerian counseling? It has a definite covert direction towards its orientation. See, for instance, Systems of Psychotherapy: A transtheoretical analysis (3rd Ed) (1).

In contrast to the sciences, which have been unanimously and steadily growing, Psychotherapy boasts a truncated mess of over 400 different psychotherapeutic fields (Current Psychotherapies (5th Ed.) (2), each disagreeing with the other, each shaping themselves according to the belief system of the time. This belief system (e.g. belief in the value of liberal democracy, the pervasiveness of capitalistic hegemony etc.) has hardly if ever been criticized. Moreover, each and every person has his particular perspective, his education, his experiences, which expresses itself in his particular language. If no two therapists share the same language, their opinion of terms such as 'true', mature', and 'productive citizen' differing, how much more so is it impossible for one individual to totally understand, emphasize, hence interpret and direct another. Moreover, as Vygotsky pointed out, since preconceptual and mythological thinking form the basis of our habitual reasoning (3), the question becomes reinforced: how can one individual establish himself as authority over another without a transcendental and scientific baseline on which to lean?

Take the sciences such as computer science, physical science and math. Each contains an unambiguously understood language. What enables them to do so? They are deductive. Meaning that their judgements are constructed on propositions that are ascertained to be as certain as is humanly possible.

Psychotherapy, on the other hand, lacks this objectivity because you have inescapable subjectivity: the moods of counselor and client, the faulty geo-historical cultural, social, familial beliefs of counselor and client, even the doubt of reliability of client's statement.

In order to attain the certainty of the deductive process and only in that way counsel another, I decided that one needs to employ the scientific process which means: (i) using mathematical language (ii) using the scientific methodology of: a. hypothesis, b. testing c. theorizing (and confirming/ negating assumption).

I tested my idea on 7 different people for 5 weeks (each session lasted an hour) using recording to review sessions, requesting client feedback and employing a counter-group (in which I used eclectic counseling techniques) to assess. I then opened my practice attempting a non-directive, scientific form of counseling by (i) using Informal and Formal Logic (mostly Symbolic), General Semantics, and Analytical Linguistics and (ii) using scientific methodology, i.e. observing pure facts (omitting attached emotions/ assumptions).

This, in short, is Logical Self-Discovery.

1. pp. 438-444. Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole.
2. pp.11. Ed. Raymond J. Corsini, USA, 1994.
3. Thought and Language Trans. A. Kozulin, MIT Press, Cambridge, UK, 1986.

Office Information

Location of sessions: In person or over the phone.

Fees: 150 NIS per hour (initial/ introductory session free).
Class: Tues. 2.00 - 3.00 at the Israel OU center - 20 NIS for members of the OU Center; 25NIS for non-members.

Contact Information for
Leah Zitter:

Use this form to ask questions or make comments.
Leah Zitter can also be reached during the hours of 9:00 am to 9:00 pm Israel time at Tel: 02-671-6059 .