E-Book Content
Philosophical Dimensions of Personal Construct Psychology
Since its formulation by George Kelly in the mid-1950s Personal Construct Psychology has been distinguished by its links with general philosophy and by the philosophical richness of its fundamental postulates. Personal Construct Psychology recognises that any attempt to understand why we behave as we do must begin with an understanding of how we create meaning. After a brief general introduction Bill Warren traces the philosophical history of Personal Construct Psychology through the broad and complex tradition of phenomenology and thinkers such as Spinoza, Hegel and Heidegger. He also gives credit to the influence of general creative and dramatic literature across a variety of cultures. Specific issues addressed in depth include the position of Personal Construct Psychology with regard to philosophy of science, cognitive science, clinical psychology, concepts of mental illness and the implications for social and political philosophy. Philosophical Dimensions of Personal Construct Psychology will provide counsellors, therapists and students of Personal Construct Psychology with a broader appreciation of its historical and philosophical context and its importance to contemporary psychology.
Bill Warren is Associate Professor in Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
Routledge Progress in Psychology
Emerging Patterns of Literacy A multidisciplinary perspective Rhian Jones Foundational Analysis Presuppositions in experimental psychology Pertti Saariluoma Modelling the Stress-Strain Relationship in Work Settings Meni Koslowsky Philosophical Dimensions of Personal Construct Psychology Bill Warren Family Argument Dispute and the organization of domestic identities Charles Antaki, Ava Horowitz and Peter Muntigl
Philosophical Dimensions of Personal Construct Psychology
Bill Warren
London and New York
First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1998 William G.Warren All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Warren, Bill 1942– Philosophical dimensions of personal construct psychology/ Bill Warren. 1. Personal construct theory—Philosophy. I. Title. BF698.9.P47W37 1998 98–17308 150.19'8–dc21 CIP ISBN 0-203-00469-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-22091-9 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-16850-3 (Print Edition)
[The suspension] of the ‘subject’ and ‘self-understanding’…cannot mean that we should liquidate the subject (the actually existing industrial societies and the institutions of the ‘administered world’ are far more adept at this; why compete with them on the level of theory?); rather it can only mean that one has to explain subjectivity better and in a more adequate way… (Frank, 1989:343–4) One cannot understand a spoken statement without knowing both its most general and its most personal and particular value. (Schleiermacher, 1977:48) What is not supposed to be my concern. First and foremost, the Good Cause, then God’s cause, the cause of mankind, of truth, of freedom, of humanity, of justice; further, the cause of my people, my prince, my fatherland; finally, even the cause of Mind, and a thousand other causes. Only my cause is never to be my concern. ‘Shame on the egoist