Therapeutic Philosophy: An Ontological Inquiry into Well-Being

Abstract

This study approaches the rise of therapeutic culture not merely as a sociological transformation but as a reduction of well-being to normative adaptation. In contemporary therapeutic discourse, well-being is predominantly defined through balance, functionality, and resilience, while therapy functions as a regulatory practice that minimizes the individual's conflict with prevailing social conditions. Such a framework confines well-being to normative stability and obscures its existential dimension. The article distinguishes philosophical therapy from modern therapeutic culture and reconsiders the ontological ground of wellbeing. Drawing on Spinoza's ontology of power and theory of affects alongside Deleuze's philosophy of difference, well-being is redefined not as adaptation but as an increase in the capacity to act. Within this perspective, therapeutic intervention is conceptualized not as a restorative model of equilibrium but as a model of encounter and composition. The study aims to contribute conceptually to emerging discussions on philosophical therapy in Turkey by proposing an ontological reconfiguration of well-being.