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Chapter 9
The Postmodern Method:
Psychotherapy
Discussion Guide
- Dr. Fidelibus says that being of "many minds" is a way to
deal with diversity in our culture. Studies show that immigration and
other religions are on a rapid rise in the U.S. In your view, will being
of many minds bring us together, or keep us separate?
- "Family therapists define the "family" as a culture."
Knowing what postmodernists think of the social construction of reality,
you can imagine that postmodern family therapists see everyone's actions
and attitudes as have been produced by their families. Are we products
of our families? To what extent? Can you think of any evidence that
people are not completely determined by their family of origin?
- Dr. Fidelibus says, "Modernist counseling approaches in psychology
have long assumed, as postmodernists do, that the ways patients see
themselves aren't objectively true. . . However, they further assume,
unlike postmodernists, that the patient will become well by developing
a more objective--or truer--self-appraisal through the process of therapy."
In other words, modernist counselors may conclude that a client is not
seeing reality correctly, which suggests neurosis or worse. Postmodern
therapists, on the other hand, start with the assumption that the client's
reality is reality for that client. Have you seen this approach
in counseling you, or friends of yours, have undergone?
- Postmodern therapy "will involve no similar effort to confront
or correct the patient's narrative." What does this mean in the
context of radical victimology?
- According to Dr. Fidelibus, "The loss of self-identity has been
associated with some of the most unsettling findings in the entire psychology
research literature." Why is this a concern with postmodern-influenced
therapies?
- "Studies have repeatedly found that we tend to attribute our
own successes to positive internal traits, such as ability and effort,
and our failures to external factors outside of our control. By contrast,
we tend to attribute the successes of others to "luck," and
their failures to inability, lack of perseverance, or some other personal
shortcoming." Based on this observation, Dr. Fidelibus concludes,
"Self-sacrifice isn't merely a pious euphemism or an exhortation
to 'be nice' or 'do good.' It's an epistemological necessity--a
pre- requisite to knowing what is true." Explain why he thinks
this. How would postmodernists view self-sacrifice?
Facilitator's Manual for Psychotherapy
- Dr. Fidelibus says that being of "many minds" is a way to
deal with diversity in our culture. Studies show that immigration and
other religions are on a rapid rise in the U.S. In your view, will being
of many minds bring us together, or keep us separate?
- As the right to maintain a different "mind" becomes an
inviolable right, this approach could well rob us of any common ground
from which to understand or to engage with each other.
- "Family therapists define the "family" as a culture."
Knowing what postmodernists think of the social construction of reality,
you can imagine that postmodern family therapists see everyone's actions
and attitudes as have been produced by their families. Are we products
of our families? To what extent? Can you think of any evidence that
people are not completely determined by their family of origin?
- How do we explain when brothers or sisters raised in the same family
turn out very differently?
- How do some people turn completely against the way they were raised,
or utterly depart from the culture in which they were raised?
- Dr. Fidelibus says, "Modernist counseling approaches in psychology
have long assumed, as postmodernists do, that the ways patients see
themselves aren't objectively true. . . However, they further assume,
unlike postmodernists, that the patient will become well by developing
a more objective--or truer--self-appraisal through the process of therapy."
In other words, modernist counselors may conclude that a client is not
seeing reality correctly, which suggests neurosis or worse. Postmodern
therapists, on the other hand, start with the assumption that the client's
reality is reality for that client. Have you seen this approach
in counseling you, or friends of yours, have undergone?
- Postmodern therapy "will involve no similar effort to confront
or correct the patient's narrative." What does this mean in the
context of radical victimology?
- In postmodern victimology, the victim's feelings and perceptions
are his or her reality. Therefore, we cannot question whether whose
who feel they were abused or harassed actually were mistreated in the
"real" world, or whether their abuse was a matter of their
own interpretation.
- According to Dr. Fidelibus, "The loss of self-identity has been
associated with some of the most unsettling findings in the entire psychology
research literature." Why is this a concern with postmodern-influenced
therapies?
- Postmodern therapies claim that people are purely the product of
their socially constructed reality. All that they are and think is not
their own, but was imparted to them by their culture. Therefore, there
is no concrete "self."
- "Studies have repeatedly found that we tend to attribute our
own successes to positive internal traits, such as ability and effort,
and our failures to external factors outside of our control. By contrast,
we tend to attribute the successes of others to "luck," and
their failures to inability, lack of perseverance, or some other personal
shortcoming." Based on this observation, Dr. Fidelibus concludes,
"Self-sacrifice isn't merely a pious euphemism or an exhortation
to 'be nice' or 'do good.' It's an epistemological necessity--a
pre- requisite to knowing what is true." Explain why he thinks
this. How would postmodernists view self-sacrifice?
- Unless we have a mind-set of self-sacrifice, we will constantly distort
reality in our favor. Spiritual growth is intended to decrease this
tendency, as Christians see life less self-centeredly and more through
God's perspective.
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