On Therapeutic Process |
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| Social Construction as Practical Theory: Lessons for Practice and Reflection in Psychotherapy. Much has been written on social construction, relational realities, and the implications of these views in psychology and psychotherapeutic practice... | Therapy as Social Construction: Back to Basics and Forward Toward Challenging Issues. Perhaps the most useful way to enter into the conversation about discursive therapies is to address what I see as a central issue that we must confront as spokespersons of therapy as social construction: What does it mean to approach therapeutic practice from a constructionist stance? What do we do, as therapists, once we propose that meaning emerges in the on-going flow of persons in situated activity? |
| Reconstructing Therapy in a Postmodern World: Relational Resources. I would like to begin by problematizing the term "psychotherapy" and inviting you into an exploration and reconstruction of the work of psychotherapists. As our attention turns toward our increasing interdependence as cultures that are both diverse and similar in multiple ways and as technology provides evermore means of connection, the idea of treating an individual, a couple, or a family is vulnerable to critiques of insignificance or triviality. . |
The Social Construction of Disorder: From Pathology to Potential. As I rushed down the highway at nearly 80 miles an hour, late to give a talk to a nearby group of colleagues (because I had taken the time to check my morning email), I heard a report that declared the discovery of a new mental disorder, internet addiction. Alarmed, I realized that I must be suffering from this addiction if, indeed, my burning need to check my email had put me in a situation where I would surely be late to give my talk and might, in fact, be endangering myself physically by driving so fast. Since the talk I was rushing to give was focused on the pathologizing effects of psychological diagnosis, I found my present situation prophetic. The challenge was before me. Do I accept the radio's report and chuck my own arguments out the window? Or do I follow my position thereby locating alternative narrative descriptions that are focused on generating possibilities rather than pathologies? Clearly, my own well being was best preserved in the latter choice. |
| The Social Construction of Psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, by its very name, draws our attention to a person's inner life. In fact, the term 'psychotherapy' is derived from the Greek psycho (soul) and therapeuein (to nurse or nourish) thus suggesting that the purpose of psychotherapy is to nourish the soul. The reference to soul implies a romantic orientation to therapeutic process where emphasis is placed on those aspects of a person that are essentially intangible yet ever-present. Phrases such as "moral fiber," "emotional sensibility," "creativity," and "passion" come to mind when we think in romanticist terms. Typically, we locate these "qualities" within the person and therapy is the profession designed to help us get at them. | Therapy and Identity Construction in A Postmodern World. The vast expansion of technological capabilities in this century has had a tremendous impact on our identity construction. With a simple flip of the television channel, radio station, newspaper or magazine page we have at our disposal an enormous array of possible identity models. Specifically, we can learn by watching "Dallas" how wealthy Texans live, including a view of their backstage (Goffman, 1959) attempts to craft the desired image. In contrast, we have the "personalities" of the rural, small town characters of television's "Northern Exposure." These differing portrayals are only a small fraction of the hundreds available. Contrast these fictional identities with the varied images we can view daily of national and local leaders, news reporters, economists, talk show personalities, and so forth. Any specific person filling one of these "roles" is very likely to be seen at some time or another "out of character." That is, we might see an interview with the President where the focus is on his family, not on his political identity. |
| Constructionist Provocations for Therapeutic Conversations About Sexuality. In this article I attempt to deconstruct our dominant discourse about sexuality, with special emphasis on sexuality as a topic within the psychotherapeutic context. As a social constructionist, my concern is with the ways in which people coordinate their activities together to produce particular beliefs and values (otherwise referred to as “realities”). The beliefs and values we articulate concerning sexuality, then, are not universally or objectively true. Instead, they are constructed byproducts of social relationships which are historically, culturally, and locally situated. What is central, to the constructionist, in both the case of psychotherapy and sexuality, is the issue of meaning; the meaning of both psychotherapy and of sexuality. I offer a very brief overview of the individualist tradition that dominates the profession of psychotherapy, followed by an overview of the constructionist alternative to individualism and end with some implications for our understanding and practice of psychotherapy as it relates to the issue of sexuality. | Promiscuity in the Practice of Family Therapy. Family Therapy has continually confronted choices between polarized positions, each one taken up with zeal because it solved an old dilemma but eventually encountering its own limitations. In this article, I suggest that we have evolved to a point where, instead of deciding which is better, we can focus on how to use theories, models, and techniques as fluid and flexible resources for action in the therapeutic conversation. Doing so focuses our attention on how we can move in and out of various positions including those that simplify issues and those that embrace complexity. In addition, our attention is drawn to the ways in which we can make choices between following a model as opposed to engaging in spontaneous dialogue. This promiscuous stance can help trainers and therapists answer questions concerning how we make decisions in therapy. Such promiscuity also positions us to confront our images and expectations of what it means to be a professional. |
| Who is the Therapist? A Social Constructionist Exploration of the Therapeutic Relationship. Perhaps the most useful way to enter into a conversation about the therapeutic relationship and the role of the therapist is to address what I see as a central issue in discussions of social construction as it relates to the practice of psychotherapy: What does constructionism offer in the realm of practice? What do we do, as therapists, once we propose that meaning emerges in the on-going flow of persons in situated activity? And thus, what are the implications of this form of practice for the therapeutic relationship? | From Disordering Discourse to Transformative Dialogue. In this chapter, we will explore the discourse of mental disorder. Our attempt is to augment the already articulated “merits” of diagnosis by proposing some of the limitations of such discourse. Specifically, we discuss the ways in which diagnosis – or the discourse of mental disorders – invites us into patterns of stigmatizing, blaming, desecrating traditions, deteriorating relationships, and disempowering people. We offer, instead, the metaphors of dialogue and multiplicity as possible openings toward transformation. |
| Creating New Narratives in Family Therapy. This article examines a family therapy session from a social constructionist perspective (Gergen, 1985). The purpose is epistemological and pragmatic. I will try to illustrate a way of thinking about how we think as researchers, clinicians, and people in the world and to show how emphasizing a way of thinking can be generative to families, researchers, and therapists. Recursively, the actions of the therapist and the family members in the therapy session, as well as the researcher's active interpretations, generate ways of knowing the world. | |
On Research |
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| Challenging the Patriarchal Vision of Social Science. This essay addresses the idea that there are "appropriate" methods for examining human interaction and highlights an alternative way to merge a feminist perspective within the domain of social scientific research. My argument has been addressed by other noted feminist scholars such as Harding (1986), Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1986), Treichler and Wartella (1986), Mies (1983), Du Bois (1983), and Stanley and Wise (1983) who question the goals of what Haraway (1981; 1985) and others have critiqued as "androcentric science." | Research as Intervention. We are pleased to respond to an invitation from Jay Lebow to present our views on an alternative way to think about family research (and research in general). In his article in the Spring issue of the AFTA Newsletter (1986), Lebow acknowledges a general tendency of clinicians to overlook (or ignore) family therapy research. He articulates eight reasons why "...the clinical practice of family therapy has remained virtually unaffected by research findings" (p. 12). |
| The Social Poetics of Relationally Engaged Research: Research as Conversation. To talk of the poetic is to give wing to the imaginative. It is to "express oneself" in words that are "thoughtful." It is to script a sense of "beauty." Also related to the poetic is freedom from the constraints of traditional forms of practice. One is urged, in employing the poetic, to suspend the discourse of "fact" or "form" and invited, instead, to engage in improvisation (literally, "working without a plan"). |
Research as Relationally Situated Activity: Ethical Implications. This essay addresses the issue of research from a social constructionist perspective. Of central concern is how research helps to bring forth the kind of world that will entertain the multiple and often competing versions of reality that are generated in differing discursive communities. Traditional research is characterized by its standards of objectivity and its quest for the essential features of our investigational topics... |
| Appreciative Evaluation within a Conflicted Educational Context. This chapter describes the use of Appreciative Inquiry in the evaluation of an academic department at a private high school. Specifically, the evaluation process was commissioned by the Dean of Faculty and the Department Chair to assess two related issues: (1) the department's curriculum and (2) the department's abilities to work collaboratively. The evaluation was part of a school-wide curriculum reform process. The goal was to assess the current curriculum within the department in such a manner that its strengths could be noted and built upon while its weaknesses could be eliminated or at least diminished. To that end, those who might benefit from the evaluation were the department faculty, the students, and ultimately the school. |
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On Practice(also see section on Therapy) |
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Relational Practices in Education: Teaching as Conversation. One of my mother's favorite stories about my childhood revolves around my first film experience. She took me, with my older brother and sisters, to see Sleeping Beauty. While my siblings were completely engaged with the film, I squirmed and sighed big sighs of discontent on my mother's lap. When the film was over, instead of quickly scrambling out the door as expected, my mother describes me as "coming to life." I was finally fully engaged... |
Appreciative Inquiry: Social Construction in Practice. This chapter describes the use of Appreciative Inquiry in the evaluation of an academic department at a private high school. Specifically, the evaluation process was commissioned by the Dean of Faculty and the Department Chair to assess two related issues: (1) the department's curriculum and (2) the department's abilities to work collaboratively... |
On Dialogue and Transformation |
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Dialogue, Creativity, and Change. It seems odd to us to write about dialogue, creativity, and change without attempting to explicitly integrate the conversational partners with whom we are engaged. This means not only incorporating others' ways of describing dialogue processes, but also, embodying in our text our voices as respondents to each other. Thus, we begin this chapter with a transcript of a conversation we had about dialogue, creativity, and change. After our initial comments, we each take some time to elaborate our specific points. In this way, our hope is to present a chapter that is emblematic of open dialogue (Seikkula, Aaltonen, Alakara, Haarakangas, Keranen, & Sutela, 1995). |
Reflections on Critical Moments as Transformations. It seems to me that the notion of critical moments is of concern to all of us because, first and foremost, we want to be better negotiators. We want to have a deeper understanding of what we do. Secondly, we want to be able to teach and train other people about what we do. With those goals in mind, let me touch on the highlights of the articles in this section where critical moments are seen as potential transformations. |
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Toward a Vocabulary of Transformative Dialogue. Most of us feel more comfortable in certain groups than others, and indeed find certain people just plain wrong headed or evil - perhaps neo-Nazis, the KKK, the Mafia, terrorist groups. This sense of alterity - distance or separation from particular others - is virtually an inevitable outcome of social life. As we come to generate realities and moralities within specific groups - families, friendships, the workplace, the religious setting - so do our interlocutors become invaluable resources. With their support - either explicit or implicit - we gain the sense of who we are, what is real, and what is right... |
Relational Bridges Between Constructionism and Constructivism. A good deal has been written about the distinction between constructivist and constructionist versions of psychology. At worst, the two are viewed as competing orientations; one – constructivism – whose focus is on internal, cognitive processes of individuals; the other – social constructionism – whose focus is on discourse or the joint (social) activities that transpire between people. At best, the two are viewed as similar because of their focus on meaning-making processes... |
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The Relational Construction of Meaning: Out of the Head and Into the Discourse. According to the traditional view of language, we generally treat words and gestures as if they pictured an independent world. This tradition fosters a belief that there could be a correct way to put things, a better method for reaching truth, or a more accurate representation of what is really there. And, if language pictures reality and it is individual speakers who utter words, then accurate representation of reality must be accomplished by individuals whose words reflect the inner workings of their minds. With this view in place, it is not difficult for us to describe how we have come to focus on individuals and their words or actions as a way of understanding the internal, mysterious mind as well as the social world. |
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On Organizational Life |
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Re-inscribing Organizational Wisdom and Courage: The Relationally Engaged Organization. Courage and wisdom, as terms that might be applied to our understanding of organizational life, present some interesting challenges. They are terms that we more readily associate with individuals... |
The Pain of Politics and the Politics of Pain. Private pain, public entertainment. Sometimes even public pain for private entertainment. We are surrounded by situations that invite us to hurt, demoralize, and devalue each other. We each inhabit ways of relating to one another that invite these acts of violence. |
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Burnout as Social Process. We will discuss the phenomenon of burnout in social services. The subtitle of this essay could be the following: how the explanations of experts may contribute to create and/or maintain the problem which the experts (i.e., theorists and researchers) are trying to explain. Burnout is described as a detachment from one's own work and/or from clients and it is considered a psychological answer to the stress experienced by professionals in their job (Cherniss, 1980a; 1980b; Maslach, 1976). |
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Samples of Sheila's Work
Below is a sampling of published chapters and articles available for reading and downloading. Please do not reproduce without permission.
The documents are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. To download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, go to: http://www.adobe.com
