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BestsellerE-book
Author Downing, Jerry N., 1943-

Title Between conviction and uncertainty : philosophical guidelines for the practicing psychotherapist / Jerry N. Downing.

Publication Info. Albany, N.Y. : State University of New York Press, [2000]
©2000

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xii, 333 pages).
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Series SUNY series, alternatives in psychology
SUNY series, alternatives in psychology.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-315) and indexes.
Summary "At a time when scores of seemingly incompatible theories and methods are competing for ascendancy in psychotherapy, one could argue that the crucial intellectual and moral dilemmas of this field are largely philosophical in nature. Yet most psychotherapists are never formally exposed to philosophical thinking during their training years or subsequent careers. Between Conviction and Uncertainty: Philosophical Guidelines for the Practicing Psychotherapist makes a significant contribution by bridging this gap. Jerry Downing examines and clarifies the philosophical context - epistemological, scientific, moral - within which psychotherapy functions. He demonstrates the necessity of maintaining a creative tension - a dialectic - between conviction and uncertainty in the work of the therapist and, more importantly, he explores in depth how this might be done. Further, he presents these sometimes complex ideas in prose that is truly reader-friendly. This book should appeal to all practitioners, supervisors, and students/trainees who find value in reflecting on the nature of psychotherapeutic practice, as well as to readers with theoretical or philosophical interests in psychotherapy."--Jacket.
Contents Challenges from the psychotherapy literature: what do therapists know? -- Proliferation of therapeutic theories and methods -- Historical and comparative approaches to psychotherapy -- Empirical literature on psychotherapy -- Subjective factors in theory construction, selection, and use -- Moral and political dimensions of therapy practice -- Challenges from philosophy: what can therapists know? -- Relevant philosophical terms and trends -- A formulation and review of philosophical positions -- Postmodernist implications for nihilism and relativism -- Revelatory and restrictive functions of psychotherapeutic theories -- Misapplications of the paradigm concept to the human sciences -- Kuhn's history and philosophy of science as psychology -- Comparisons to the theories of George Kelly and Carl Rogers -- A theory about human theories -- Range of philosophical assumptions in psychotherapeutic theories -- Does the objectivist-constructivist contrast apply to theories, theorists/therapists, or therapeutic practices? -- What are the varieties of "constructivism" in contemporary psychotherapy? -- How does the objectivist-constructivist contrast relate to subjectivism and transpersonalism? -- Philosophical assumptions as lived modes of knowing -- Toward the integration of philosophy and lived experience -- A framework for lived modes of knowing -- Lived modes of knowing in the therapist's experience -- Realist mode of knowing -- Representational mode of knowing -- Perspectival mode of knowing.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Psychotherapy -- Philosophy.
Psychotherapy -- Philosophy.
Psychotherapy.
Philosophy.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Other Form: Print version: Downing, Jerry N., 1943- Between conviction and uncertainty. Albany, N.Y. : State University of New York Press, ©2000 0791446271 (DLC) 99051479 (OCoLC)42683163
ISBN 058526676X (electronic book)
9780585266763 (electronic book)
0791446271 (alkaline paper)
079144628X (paperback ; alkaline paper)