Change Them? … Into What?

In this article, Jay Adams presents a talk given to the University Psychiatric Clinic in Vienna, Austria from 1977. Adams maintains that there is fragmentation in the counseling field about what a human being ought to be, hence a fragmentation of counseling models. He argues that we need a standard if we are to attempt to change people’s lives. For Christians, that standard is Jesus Christ. Adams defines “nouthetic” counseling as a type of counseling that seeks to change people’s thoughts, attitudes, values, springs of motivation, and behavior, by verbal confrontation, out of concern for the welfare of the other. Fundamentally, Adams argues that change must occur at the inner core of a person’s being (the “heart”) by a power from outside the person (God).