'Now it's your choice': Nondirective genetic counseling, other minds, place and counselee empowerment

'Now it's your choice': Nondirective genetic counseling, other minds, place and counselee empowerment

In this article we use a variety of philosophical literature to support and clarify the tenets and importance of a form of nondirective genetic counseling. We do this by referring to the problem of other minds and our philosophy of place which is informed by Jung, Lacan, Heidegger, Malpas and Zizek. Our major thesis is that nondirective counseling is the most ethical way to help a counselee. A genetic counselor cannot enter into the lived first person conscious experience of the counselee and so can never really know the best decisions for each individual person. Ultimately, we argue that in most cases, choices and decisions need to be made by the counselee so that they are able to discover their non obstructed home or place in the world where their mental health awaits them. We argue that counselee decisions in genetic counseling cannot be prescribed as ‘prepackaged’ solutions because the best outcome is facilitated by the nature of the therapeutic alliance and the unique interaction between the place of each individual counselor and counselee.