This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Simon, G. M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Why We Don't "Get" Each Other: A Response to Susan Johnson

The Minuchin Center for the Family

In her response to my article on the integrative nature of emotionally focused therapy (EFT), Johnson (2006) implies that I do not "get" EFT. Similarly, I do not believe that she "got" the substance of my article's argumentation. In this response to her response, I frame our mutual inability to "get" each other as reflecting the fact that our thinking is founded on differing epistemological assumptions. Johnson makes the modernist assumption that theoretical models are maps of objectively existing territories; I make the post-modernist assumption that models are prescriptive stories about what it means to be human. Johnson's assumptions lead her to seek enhanced therapeutic effectiveness via the integration of theoretical models; my assumptions lead me to seek enhanced effectiveness via a scheme that allows therapists to choose a theoretical model whose underlying worldview closely matches their own, and then to assimilate elements from other models into this chosen theoretical base.

Key Words: psychotherapy integration • therapeutic effectiveness • modernism/postmodernism • emotionally focused therapy • structural family therapy

The Family Journal, Vol. 14, No. 3, 209-212 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1066480706287667


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?