心理治疗领域的本质论与社会建构论

本质论与社会建构论是心理治疗领域中两种对立倾向。本质论坚持了经验实证主义的传统,代表着心理治疗领域中的现代主义取向;这一取向把病理心理作为行为问题的本质,从个体的内部寻找产生病理心理的原因。社会建构论挑战经验实证主义科学观,认为病理心理并非一种“精神实在”,而是一种文化建构。它代表了心理治疗领域的后现代主义取向。作者认为,两种取向的对立短时间内难以消解,在目前的条件下,应开放和宽容,互补互惠。

Essentialism vs. Social Constructionism in Psychotherapy

Essentialism and social constructionism are two hardly compatible approaches in psychotherapy.Essentialism in psychotherapy is the product of the positivist-empiricist tradition in psychology and the representative of modernist psychology.Essentialist approach's core assumption is that mental diseases have an aetiology or cause with a biological substratum.And it is within the individual that we can identify the"reality" responsible for the symptoms of mental diseases.Social constructionism challenges the tradition of the positivist-empiricist view of psychology,and does not attribute an ontological status of objective existence to psychopathology.Instead,it regards the psychopathology as a social construction.Therefore,social constructionism is the representative of postmodernism in psychotherapy.In the author's opinion,the opposition of the two approaches is difficult to resolve,but they can be open,tolerant and complementary to each other.