| In this dissertation mental health is explicated in terms of an ethical ideal. This ideal has as its foundation the Aristotelian notion of goodness as modified by Kant and Rawls. The human being is self-conscious, intentional and rational, so can experience existential guilt and is free to make choices. If human beings as clients are to attain happiness, then each must develop a rational life plan based on the ethical principles of utility, antonomy and social justice.;Currently used counseling theories contain philosophical statements about what is good for human beings. Evaluated against the criteria of what makes therapeutic change possible, i.e., the characteristics of what it means to be human, and the ethical ideal, psychodynamic, cognitive and behavior counseling theories were found to be inadequate.;Utilizing Steiner's work on moral criticism, the process of psychical criticism is described whereby the counselor helps clients reach a point where self-transcendence, the goal of mental health, becomes a possibility. The process of psychical criticism was found to be similar to the psychotherapeutic processes described by existentialists Martin Buber and Rollo May.;Since the client who is striving for mental health must be educated with respect to the ethical ideal, counselors must serve as teachers. Counseling students must be educated to know clients qualitatively, quantitatively and performatively and to know the ethical ideal. Since traditional supervision models do not adequately account for so educating counseling students, suggestions for additions to counselor education programs were made. |
