Content area
Full Text
Integrative approaches seem to be paramount in the current climate of family therapy and other psychotherapies. However, integration between and among theories and practices can only occur within a specific epistemology. This article makes a distinction between three different epistemologies: individualizing, systems, and poststructural. It then makes the argument that one can integrate theories within epistemologies and one can adopt practices and some theoretical concepts across theories and across epistemologies, but that it is impossible to integrate theories across epistemologies. It further states that although social constructionism has influenced much of contemporary psychological thinking, because of the divergence between a structural and a poststructural approach, constructionism looks different depending upon one's epistemological stance. Examples of integration within epistemologies and of what looks like integration across epistemologies (but is not) further illustrate these important distinctions. The conclusions reached here are crucial to our philosophical considerations, our pedagogical assumptions, and implications for both research and a reflexive clinical practice.
Keywords: Epistemology; Integrative; Poststructural; Social Constructionism; Structural; Systems
Fam Proc 49:349-368, 2010
There is a common refrain in much of my teaching experience, often posed as a question, in which I invite students to "think about their thinking." When they tell me how they are relating to a particular client, I ask them what thinking informs their work. When they ask a question, either of a client, or in a classroom or workshop situation, I usually want to know what led them to that question, how is the question important to them, how are they thinking about it. In other words, I ask them to be epistemologists. Epistemology is often defined as the theory of knowledge, also stated as "knowing what we know" or "thinking about how we think"; this indicates a reflexivity that is of signal importance in our work as therapists. It is an invitation to position ourselves in a way of thinking so that the practices we employ and the theories we follow are consistent and congruent. It is counter to a "seat of the pants" approach or to a performance of "whatever works." It is thoughtful and intentional.
I position myself within a poststructural epistemology; this is in contrast to a structural one, in which I include both an individualizing and a systems...