On Language

Brief interruption in the HTEWF series, which I shall one day finish when I'm not writing scholastic papers. I just wanted to say that language, words, are magical. Having no inherent meaning of their own, they only come to life when we paint our ideas onto them. That said, I will now share with you all the unreadable, I mean, increadible thrill and joy of research in theoretical psychological therapy. First, from Carl Whitaker, John Warkentin, and Nan Johnson's article, A Philosophical Basis for Brief Psychotherapy, I give you this excerpt: "The orientation of the therapist largely determines the depth to which the therapeutic relationship can be used by the patient. It is necessary to clarify the functional limits of the interview-situation to reduce the need for conscious techniques by the therapist. The unconscious of the therapist can thereby be released to relate more freely to the unconscious of the patient. Therapy limited in this way, to dealing only with the emotional and symbolic aspects of the relationship, can be adequate in itself to effect a successful therapeutic outcome. The criteria for this success are measured in terms of change in the patient's orientation and not by any overt change in behaviour or symptomatology. It becomes apparent that in this sense, any patient can be helped." Wow, that's great! Now I can totally see why therapy should be made brief. Now, the next gem is from Approaching the individual, approaching the system: A constructivist model for integrative psychotherapy by Guillem Feixas: "The role of premises in social systems (mainly families) was suggested by Bateson (1972, 1979) and has been a central tenet in constructivist family therapy. Cecchin (in Boscolo et al., 1987) asserts that 'the biggest shifts in family therapy come when you succeed in operating at the level of deep premises' (p. 89). Penn (1985) also considers premises as central issues for the system's change because it is an 'inclusive contextual idea in a system that seems to organize or contrain behaviours linked to a problem' (p. 302). This position is also congruent with Bogdan's (1984) elaboration of Bateson's (1972) 'ecology of ideas' in the sense of a system in which a reciprocal confirmation of ideas is given so that 'the ideas of each member lead him to behave in ways that confirm or support the ideas of every other family member' (p. 376)." Thanks, I'll stow that one away.