If a self is a narrative: Social constructionism in the clinic

Journal/Book: J Narrative Life Hist. 1995; 5: 10 Industrial Ave, Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc. 269-283.

Abstract: The articles in this special issue indicate that the self is best understood not as an empirical and transhistorical entity, but as a narrative, inextricable from its location in history and culture. This view has significant implications for psychotherapy. It suggests that therapy is a moral discourse, that its claim to authority is better understood as ideological than as scientific. But because it generally takes a reificationist stance on such matters as emotions, therapy is currently ill-equipped to take account of the self as a social construction and of itself as a moral practice.

Note: Article G Greenberg, POB 100, Scotland, CT 06264 USA

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