Sheila McNamee

Therapy As Social Construction

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? This concern gives rise to a related issue which I will touch upon as an exciting and vitally important direction in which we must now move: how do we assess or evaluate our therapeutic practice if meaning is understood as a local achievement? This question emerges as we confront both the continuing conversation around therapeutic practice and its relation to a constructionist orientation (e.g., this volume stands as one illustration). Our discussions might be well focused on appreciating conversations that challenge us to articulate what we mean when we talk of therapeutic practice as social construction.

Accepting research as social intervention: Implications of a systemic epistemology

This essay is an attempt to illustrate an alternative conceptualization of what is considered “science.” The systemic epistemology introduced by Bateson and others is described as an equally viable complement to traditional epistemological orientations. The distinction between the two orientations is the recognition, within the systemic epistemology, of the interventive role of the observer. A specific model is introduced as providing a working method for conducting research within the systemic epistemology. This model is borrowed from the field of systemic family therapy where intervention in social systems is celebrated and accepted. This model, although clinical in orientation, offers useful guidelines for developing research programs which acknowledge social intervention.

Avaliação como construção social: investigação apreciativa

In this article we propose a view of evaluation as a process where positive and generative aspects of the interactive context are explored. Drawing on a social constructionist discourse, Appreciative Inquiry is presented as an alternative form of evaluation that promotes change. The use of Appreciative Inquiry as a strategy of evaluation has been used in different contexts and cultures, yet is not widely known in Brazil, as a research and evaluation methodology. This article attempts to introduce Appreciative Inquiry as a valid and useful approach of evaluation in different contexts.

Feedback informed treatment: evidence-based practice meets social construction.

This article explores the challenges presented by the mandate for evidence-based practice for family therapists who identify with the philosophical stance of social construction. The history of psychotherapy outcome research is reviewed, as are current findings that provide empirical evidence for an engaged, dialogic practice. The authors suggest that the binary between empiricism and social construction may be unhinged by understanding empiricism as a particular discursive frame (i.e., a particular way of talking, acting, and being in the world), one of many available as a way of understanding and talking about our work. Through a case vignette, the authors introduce the evidence-based practice of Feedback Informed Treatment as an elaboration of social construction, and as an example of bridging the gap between the discursive frames of empiricism and social construction.

Radical presence: Alternatives to the therapeutic state

This article introduces the idea of radical presence as an alternative to the current therapeutic state (or psy-complex) within which we live today. Radical presence challenges us to confront the dominance of psychological discourses which define, control, and limit the ways in which we live. It shifts our attention from diagnosis and treatment of individuals to an exploration of broader relational and institutional contexts, and the ways in which professionals and ordinary people alike can be responsive, present, and open to a multiplicity of life forms.

Personal Construct Psychology, Radical Constructivism, and Social Constructionism: A Dialogue

This article presents a dialogue about personal construct psychology, radical constructivism, and social constructionism. The dialogue is based on a symposium conducted in July 2011 at the 19th International Congress on Personal Construct Psychology. Jay Efran, Sheila McNamee, and Bill Warren were the participants, with Jonathan Raskin as moderator. The dialogue addresses points of contact and divergence across these three theories, how these theories deal with the issue of relativism, and how theorists from these three perspectives might best “go on” together.

Dialogue and transformation: embracing sexual diversity in the educational context

Embora as recentes politicas de educacao no Brasil tenham incluido a sexualidade como tema importante a ser discutido nas salas de aula, elas ainda nao efetivamente criaram um contexto educacional onde a sexualidade possa ser discutida de forma positiva, nao-discriminatoria e sensivel as cultura e historia do contexto. Este artigo tem como objetivo contribuir com o desenvolvimento de programas de treinamento para educadores em sexualidade, especificamente para aqueles preocupados com a inclusao de expressoes sexuais nao-normativas no contexto educacional. A partir de ideias construcionistas-sociais nos delineamos um modelo de treinamento para educadores em sexualidade no qual o envolvimento relacional e o foco no processo criam o contexto para uma educacao transformadora. Primeiramente, apresentamos uma breve revisao da educacao sexual no Brasil e posteriormente apresentamos os conceitos de comunidades de inteligibilidades e dialogo. Esses dois conceitos nos permitem discutir como os valores sao gerados e como eles participam daquilo que tomamos como sendo bom e real. Por fim, inspirados por um de nossos programas de treinamento, nos ilustramos o modelo oferecendo possibilidades de traducao de principios teoricos em atividades de treinamento.

Sex trade among men: negotiating sex, bodies and identity categories

Commercial sex is a marginalized and highly stigmatized activity in Brazilian culture. In this article we aim at investigating the discursive strategies used by young men who trade sex in order to resist stigmatization and social exclusion. We interviewed 24 young men who trade sex in a medium sized city in Brazil. Discursive strategies used by the interviewees to avoid social stigma could be summarized as (1) a reduction of sexual activity to its commercial sense by employing a conceptualization of masculinity that focuses on moral values and disregards sexual intercourse, (2) an emphasis on the anatomic characteristics as a criterion to delimit sexual identification categories, and (3) a shifting of sexual systems from one based on sexual object choice to one based on sexual aim. The discussion highlights that the interviewees were actively negotiating with normative assumptions of sexuality and thus producing either its subversion or conservation.

4. Realizing transformative dialogue

Drawing from a social constructionist theory and its related practices, we propose the realization of transformative dialogue, a form of dialogue that may bring conflicting communities into more viable forms of coordination. We outline a range of conversational resources stressing relational responsibility, self-expression, affirmation, coordination, reflexivity, and the co-creation of new realities. The analysis is further extended through a case study of improvisation and organizational change. There is no attempt in the present article to suggest a set of relational rules. The attempt is to generate a potentially useful vocabulary of action, rather than a set of rules for negotiating among incommensurate realities.

Family as a Discursive Achievement: A Relational Account

Beginning with an understanding of family as a social construction, this article suggests that people actively make meanings about family during social interchanges. The idea is that family can be conceived as a discursive achievement: Family is defined in terms of what people who are drawing on various available socially produced discourses describe together as family. We propose that different realities regarding family are created via social processes of negotiating meaning in the interactive moment. Therefore, there are many different versions of family, and each of them has diverse implications for the social world. Examples of these implications for psychological theories, research, and family therapy are also presented, in considering how they might be useful in the field of psychology.