Some reflections on the therapeutic power of poststructuralism

Social constructionism is fast gaining currency as a major theory of social and personal change. Although its origins are in philosophy and sociology, social constructionism has major implications for psychology, and in particular, for applied psychology. This paper looks at some of the poststructuralist assumptions which underpin social constructionism, contrasting these with some of the major beliefs upon which much of humanistic psychology is based. It argues that many of the practices of liberal humanistic psychology are fundamentally pessimistic, in that they essentialise aspects of the self and the personality, suggesting strategies of adaptation rather than personal transformation. Further, the absence of an adequate psychological theory of context renders applied psychology all but helpless in confronting issues of power and social control. Poststructuralist theory suggests ways of theorising human interactions without denying agency, or indeed, claiming too much. The paper suggests ways in which counsellors are well placed to take theoretical and practical advantage of these perspectives.A version of this paper was presented at the Conference of the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, Auckland, New Zealand, August 1993.