Problems of Confirmation in Psychotherapy

Confirmation, in Martin Buber's understanding of the term, is essential to persons' becoming themselves with other persons, and it is central to dialogical therapy. Confirmation means confirming the uniqueness ofthe other person by making the other present through“inclusion,”or imagining the real” Knowing that we are made present by the other in what we are and what we are called to become induces the inmost becoming of the self. Affirmation is only the beginning of the therapeutic dialogue; confirmation also includes confrontation-helping clients with and against themselves by taking part in their struggles to bring the aimless whirl into the direction of our dialogue with life. This article discusses both theoretically and with case illustrations five problems of confirmation in therapy: the first interview, the presenting problem versus the whole person, spontaneous dialogue within fixed structure, silence, and confirmation as acceptance and confrontation. It concludes with Maurice Friedman's understanding of therapy as a dialogue of touchstones.