Carla Guanaes

Psicologia, ciência e construcionismos: dando sentido ao self

O construcionismo social tem sido proposto como um conjunto de elaboracoes da crise paradigmatica que tem sofrido as ciencias nas ultimas decadas. A complexidade e riqueza de tais elaboracoes dificultam uma descricao unica e consensualmente aceita sobre o construcionismo social. Neste artigo temos como objetivo explorar as propostas de Kenneth J. Gergen e Rom Harre acerca do construcionismo social, seus pressupostos, a visao de ciencia promovida por cada uma delas, buscando compreender as implicacoes para a construcao de suas descricoes de self. Se e possivel identificarmos diversas semelhancas nas propostas destes autores, algumas diferencas significativas marcam a distincao de suas posturas, e servem para mapear o campo de tensoes no qual outros autores construcionistas buscam ativamente se posicionar.

Contribuições da poética social à pesquisa em psicoterapia de grupo

The objective of this article is to describe some contributions of social constructionism and social poesis in the description of group psychotherapy and its scientific investigation. Social constructionism is an alternative form of intelligibility in science, which focuses on the comprehension of the way people make sense of the world and of themselves in their discursive practices. Concurrent with this perspective, social poesis can be described as a research practice that is useful in investigating the conversational processes, emphasizing the centrality of the researcher in the construction of meanings about its object of study. In this article, we aim to describe how these perspectives can sustain a systematic research practice of group psychotherapy. Thus, we describe some methodological steps developed in a study about a group in a mental health setting, showing how they helped us to comprehend the conversational process through which the group was constructed as a therapeutic resource.

Sentidos de doença mental em um grupo terapêutico e suas implicações

This study adopts a social constructionist perspective, which focuses on how people make meaning of themselves and of the world in their discursive practices. By emphasizing the performative character of language, the aim of this study was to describe meanings of mental illness produced in a therapeutic group, offered in a mental health ambulatory, and the implications of the use of these meanings to the group conversations. The meaning making analysis was based on the transcriptions of 16 group sessions. This analysis allowed us to describe some meanings of mental illness, to construct links among these meanings and the changing view favored by them, as well as the interaction among the group participants. Based on this, we suggest that thinking about some mental illness meanings and its use can be useful to promote dialogical exchanges in group therapy and the conversational construction of change.