Psychotherapy and the Idea of Meaning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20400522 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nigel Mackay (University of Wollongong and Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 359-386 |
| Publication date | 2003-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theory & Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0959-3543 • E-ISSN: 1461-7447 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0959354303013003004 |
| OpenAlex | W2057412992 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 59 |
A number of influential theorists in psychotherapy and psychology rightly argue that meaning is central to psychology. However, they ground this insight on further claims that persons autonomously create meaning and reality; and that a constructivist, anti-realist, postmodern philosophy offers justification for the centrality of meaning. These further claims are mistaken. They confuse symbolic meaning with meaning as salience. The latter, the meaning usually of concern to psychotherapy, is a relation between a person (specifically motives) and objects. It results from the interaction between persons and objects relevant to their motivational interests. It is part of the real, determinate world and in principle scientifiically investigable. The argument that meaning is part of autonomously created realities is incoherent. Further, anti-realist, postmodern constructivism depends on the realist assumptions about facts, truth and objective knowledge that it denies. The genuine insights of the meaning-making movement require a realist account of knowledge, truth and objectivity
Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Postmodernism · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Representations and Identity
Constructivism and ‘The Real World’
Belonging
Defending constructivist ethics after September 11
Philosophy, realism and psychology’s disciplinary fragmentation
John Anderson’s development of (situational) realism and its bearing on psychology today
Coherent Constructivism
Mind as Feeling' or Affective Relations
Deconstructing theory
Bridging Incommensurate Discourses
On `Just Not Getting It
From the De-Centred Subject to Relationality
What is the status of theoretical psychology in Australia and New Zealand? An investigation of contemporary teaching and research issues
The Teacher’s Vocation
Creative Practice
A New Language for Psychoanalysis
A Derrida Reader
Freud, Psychoanalysis and Symbolism
Group psychology and the analysis of the ego.
Narrative and Psychotherapy
Realities and relationships
The social construction of reality
Truth and Progress
Agency
Gergen's Social Constructionism, Logical Positivism and the Continuity of Error
Narrative Psychology, Trauma and the Study of Self/Identity
Construction in Contention
Constructivism, Direct Realism and the Nature of Error
Representationism, Realism and the Redundancy of `Mentalese
Direct Realism and the Analysis of Perceptual Error
Social Constructionism, Deconstructionism and Some Requirements of Discourse
Constructionism and Realism
On the Construction of a Social Reality
New Directions in Psychological Anthropology
The adequacy of hermeneutics in psychoanalysis and psychology
The argument for constructivism
Social Constructionism, Discourse, and Psychology
Narrative Truth and Theoretical Truth
Introduction
The Varieties of Social Construction
Quantitative science and the definition of measurement in psychology
| Citations per year | 0.58 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2002 - 2023 (22) |
| Highly cited | No |