Constructivism in Psychotherapy

Constructivism in Psychotherapy Robert A. Neimeyer and Michael J. Mahoney (Eds.). American Psychological Association, 1995, 436 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) Constructivist psychotherapy continues its assault on the fortress of rationalist thinking as exemplified by this new book from the American Psychological Association. The great names are all here: Mahoney, Neimeyer, Guidano, Lyddon, Goncalves, Efran, and the like-with contributions from lesser-known writers such as Hermans and Leitner. All together, this large volume constitutes the most comprehensive examination of constructivist thinking to date. The book consists of five sections incorporating 18 chapters: Historical and Conceptual Foundations, Personal Change and Reconstruction, The Narrative Turn, Social Systemic Perspectives, and the Challenge of Constructivist Psychotherapy. While the individual chapters more or less follow these broad headings, there is considerable conceptual overlap among the chapters as well as the sections. This book at once illustrated the best and the worst of edited volumes. Its very comprehensiveness results in substantial conceptual redundancy among the chapters. Several chapters include their own definition of constructivism, not always in agreement with others. However, constructivism by its very nature invites multiple perspectives on the same event or concept-and that this book surely provides! Some chapters are clearly constructivist in nature while others seem to reflect the author's idiosyncratic approach, named constructivist only in retrospect. For a variegated look at constructivism in all its manifestations, however, it is unparalleled to date. Constructivism is an epistemological approach rather than a clearly defined theory with derived techniques and the book is clearly conceptually oriented rather than intervention oriented. The most clearly technique chapters are the narrative therapy chapters and the termination chapter by Epston and White. The most theoretical, not surprisingly, are those in the historical and conceptual section. Also included are chapters on meaningmaking, dialectical constructivism, and optimal therapeutic distance. Several themes run through the book like leitmotives. Certainly, the Personal Construct Psychology (PCT) of George Kelly is mentioned and discussed frequently. Indeed, in some ways the volume illustrates the coming-of-age of PCT. Only now perhaps is Kelly's monumental contribution to the psychotherapy literature being recognized. Other less obvious precursors include Gestalt therapy, attachment theory, and developmental psychotherapy. B ut the one psychotherapeutic theory that permeates the book, yet is rarely acknowledged, is the client centered theory of Carl Rogers. Indeed, the most intriguing aspect of the volume, in my opinion, is the implicit renaissance of that supposedly moribund approach. …