Therapist Role in Narrative Group Psychotherapy

With its assumptions about the interpersonal origins of individual learning, narrative theory suggests certain leadership functions for group therapists: providing a perspective on how multiple meanings may be constructed about experience; leading the process of deconstructing individual narratives through careful questioning to distinguish persons from problems; enlisting participants in active awareness and engagement with group dynamics and group process; and enabling the co-creation of a group narrative through the development of a new community of conversations.     

Image Events, the Public Sphere, and Argumentative Practice: The Case of Radical Environmental Groups

Operating from the assumption that a primary dynamic of contemporary public argument involves the use of visual images the authors explore the argumentative possibilities of the `image events' (staged protests designed for media dissemination) employed by radical ecology groups. In contextualizing their discussion, the authors offer an analysis of the contemporary conditions for argumentation by describing the character and operation of public communication, social problem creation, and public opinion formation in a mass-mediated public sphere. The authors argue that image events are a form of postmodern argumentative practice, a kind of oppositional argument that creates social controversy, and animates and widens possibilities for debate. They further suggest that image events are a postmodern form of argument involving acts of protest which deliver images as argumentative fragments. Employing the tools of traditional argument theory the authors describe how images are capable of offering unstated propositions and advancing indirect and incomplete claims in ways that function to block enthymemes and advance alternatives. In concluding, the authors discuss the implications of image events for our understanding of the public sphere and the possibilities for argumentation in a postmodern age.     

焦点解决短期治疗(SFBT)的理论述评

焦点解决短期治疗是近二十年逐步发展成熟的心理治疗模式．在西方社会得到了广泛的应用。本文阐述了SFBT的产生背景、基本理念、基本流程与技术及其应用价值．并对这种新兴的心理治疗模式作了简要的评述。     

The Study of Western Postmodern Philosophy of History in China in the Four Decades of Reform and Opening Up

In the 1960s and 1970s—as structuralism, post-structuralism, and literary criticism seeped into history—the “linguistic turn” or “narrative turn,” leading to what is known as postmodern philosophy of history, took place in Western philosophy of history. In the past forty years of reform and opening up to the outside world, and especially in the most recent two or three decades, Chinese research on Western postmodern philosophy of history has proceeded from overall review to in-depth research, and then on to reflection, criticism, and even transcendence. Neither the rethinking of historical objectivity and rationality nor the reconstruction of convictions about historical reason can work without the profound insights or theoretical tensions of postmodern philosophy of history.     

叙事心理治疗的特征及其与中国文化的契合

基于后现代文化理念的叙事心理治疗,其主要特征与中国文化的契合体现在:问题外化的治疗手段顺应中国人的面子心理和辩证的思维方式;关系取向的治疗立场更适合具有关系自我观的中国人;关注差异的治疗模式与中医的个体化治疗模式不谋而合;重视来访者的内在力量可充分发挥中国人善于自律和反思的特长。     

后现代心理学与现代心理学的对话

当现代心理学正身处众多困境时,后现代心理学者们从新的视角和观点对其展开了攻势,因此在这近十多年里,西方心理学界充满了激烈辩论的声音。文章总结了西方心理学界围绕着后现代心理学这个话题展开的各种对话,包括心理学的认识论、研究性质、研究方法以及后现代心理学的价值等各个方面的讨论。作者在梳理这些对话的同时,对二者的观点进行了论述,其目的是为了更加深入地了解后现代心理学和现代心理学的理论建构,从而推进心理学科的深入研究。     

THE ATHENS/JERUSALEM TEMPLATE AND THE TECHNO‐SECULARISM THESIS—KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD

Abstract. The publication of my article “Athens, Jerusalem, and the Arrival of Techno‐secularism” (2005) in Zygon was followed by twenty‐one responses, most of them critical. In this essay I reply by clarifying the earlier one, separating out its two major theses: the Athens/Jerusalem template and the techno‐secularism thesis. The Athens/Jerusalem template is a typology that provides a historical basis for understanding why religion/science conflicts persist by showing that the contrasts between intellectual knowledge and revealed knowledge are permanent features of Western cultural history. Postmodern criticisms often have a negative edge, rejecting “canonical” accounts but not presenting alternative explanations. Historical context is helpful in understanding religion/science conflicts, which continue to exist. The present cultural situation is that technology is replacing religion—and science—as the dominant condition and theory of our culture. Evidence for the techno‐secularism thesis can be seen in the nature of electronic entertainment, which invades the silence required for religious contemplation and obscures the scientific laws that are the basis for the new technology.     

西医——中医挥之不去的他者

中西医的论证是医学哲学与医学史研究的热点问题。后现代哲学可以为理解两种医学之间的关系提供一个新的视角。本文运用后现代哲学中的“他者”观念回顾了中西医之间张力的演变,指出在整个过程中“中医”未能摆脱“西医”作为“他者”的注视。并从后现代医学的角度对这种张力的未来进行展望。     

The Lutheran Confessions in Western Europe: Past and Future

Abstract: The idea of a church uniting confession began with the Lutherans in the late 1520s; and with translations of the Augsburg Confession (AC) it spread throughout Europe with the advance of the Reformation. As European culture slips further toward postmodern relativism, the absolute nature of divine claims reflected in confessions will seem odd and unwelcome. Christians must take up the challenge of developing a hermeneutic for interpreting the confessions so that the Truth of God can be respected.     

Postmodern Aging and the Loss of Meaning

This article reviews several authors' perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages of a global postmodern society and its effect on the affluent and not-so-affluent elderly. Without the socioeconomic supports of the past, the not-so-affluent elderly may find themselves insecure and anxious about their core identity in a postmodern world, while the affluent elderly with the resources to consume postmodern society's growing array of medical procedures, technological devices, etc. may benefit from the multiple, shifting identities characteristic of postmodern culture. Without recognition of what aging has to teach us about the human condition, several authors see a loss of existential/spiritual meaning in postmodern society.