Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Giambattista Vico
- 3 Phenomenology
- 4 Hermeneutics
- 5 Marxism and language
- 6 Lev Vygotsky
- 7 Meanings and perspectives
- 8 Ludwig Wittgenstein
- 9 Gregory Bateson
- 10 Sociologies – Micro and Macro
- 11 Sources of the self
- 12 Michel Foucault and his challenges
- 13 Discourse analysis
- 14 Ken and Mary Gergen
- 15 Rom Harré
- 16 John Shotter
- 17 Concluding remarks
- Bibliography
- Index
14 - Ken and Mary Gergen
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Giambattista Vico
- 3 Phenomenology
- 4 Hermeneutics
- 5 Marxism and language
- 6 Lev Vygotsky
- 7 Meanings and perspectives
- 8 Ludwig Wittgenstein
- 9 Gregory Bateson
- 10 Sociologies – Micro and Macro
- 11 Sources of the self
- 12 Michel Foucault and his challenges
- 13 Discourse analysis
- 14 Ken and Mary Gergen
- 15 Rom Harré
- 16 John Shotter
- 17 Concluding remarks
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Traditions of cultural life furnish numerous avenues to suffering; the challenge is to develop resources for moving through cultural life effectively as opposed to sedating ourselves for the journey.
(K. J. Gergen, 2006: 159)Our words constitute forms of action that invite others into certain forms of relationship as opposed to others.
(M. M. Gergen and K. J. Gergen, 2001: 13)Psychology has been the source of many ideas and interventions when it comes to professional practice. A major fork in the road occurred early in the discipline's history when most psychologists decided on a natural science over human science direction. This shift saw most psychologists aiming to explain human experience using methods and ideas one associates with the ‘hard sciences’: statistical prediction, ‘objectivity’ and knowledge readily adaptable to technological purposes. While psychologists tend not to wear labcoats these days, culturally many view psychology as the enterprise best positioned to deliver the foundational truths needed to guide such social practices as education, management strategies and policies, psychotherapy, even advertising. At the time of writing this book the American Psychological Association implicitly condones the participation of its members in ensuring scientifically warranted practices of torture.
Not every psychologist took the same direction at the fork in the road, of course, nor has the discipline ever abandoned the notion that its science and practices could be closer to those Vico or Dilthey might have envisioned.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social ConstructionismSources and Stirrings in Theory and Practice, pp. 295 - 307Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010