Presentation from International Сonference "Communication as a discipline and as a field: sharing experience to construct a dialogue"

1. Communication as a process
of identity construction
Postmodern perspective on psychotherapy

2. As the archaeology of our
thought easily shows, man
is an invention of recent
date. And one perhaps
nearing its end.
Michel Foucault
The Order of Things, 1966

3. Modern Self Postmodern Self
Human nature Constructed, Narrative
Object, Stable Process, Fluid
Individualistic, Isolated Relational, Performed
Singular, Centered Multi-storied, Dialogical
Intrapsychic Distributed

4. Bad news for psychotherapy?

6. The person is not the
problem, the problem
is the problem
Michael White & David Epston
Narrative therapy

7. Instead of problem
solving, we focus on
solution-building
Steve de Shazer & Insoo Kim Berg
Solution Focused Brief Therapy

8. Communication in ‘modern’
psychotherapy
• A tool for description of separate objective/subjective reality
• A tool for change of this reality – firstly, ‘inner structures’ of
personality

9. Communication in ‘postmodern’
psychotherapy
• Communication IS intersubjective reality
• Communication as a process of identity construction

10. • Communication as action, performance
Performance is not merely a vehicle for
being seen. Performance gives one self-
definition, and that is a tantamount to
being what one claims to be.
Barbara Myerhoff
Communication in ‘postmodern’
psychotherapy

11. • Attention to language
We are able to reconstruct an experiential
everyday metaphor into relational language
which in turn generates the relational space to
consider the position that ‘this metaphor is in
relation to me, it is not intrinsically me’
Johnella Bird
Communication in ‘postmodern’
psychotherapy

12. • Attention to metaphors
Narrative as a metaphor for psychology
(Jerome Bruner, Theodore Sarbin)
Communication in ‘postmodern’
psychotherapy

13. • Attention to politics
Communication in ‘postmodern’
psychotherapy

14. • Attentive to values (and the value
itself)
How talk is to be treated not as a
means to a therapeutic end but as a
central source of moral meaning itself
Ernesto Spinelli
Communication in ‘postmodern’
psychotherapy

15. • Who are the partners of communication?
Multiplicity of Self-positions: Dialogical Self (Hubert
Hermans)
A therapist could help to construct a meaning
bridge between client and therapist that enables
the client’s internal voices to communicate with
each other and even engage in joint action
John Rowan
Communication in ‘postmodern’
psychotherapy

16. • Connection to social context: community
work
Trying to enable people to experience relief
from the effects of difficulties in their lives,
and enabling them to make broader
contributions to others or to changing the
social conditions that contributed to the
problems they have been facing.
David Denborough
Communication in ‘postmodern’
psychotherapy

17. Modern Postmodern
A tool for description and change of
reality
Intersubjective reality, process of
construction and performance, goal and
value
Language, models and metaphors are
implicit, secondary
Attention to language, metaphors;
deconstruction of taken-for-granted
Intention to be neutral, objective Intention to make the value and political
point visible
Relationship between therapist and
client (mostly as singular Self)
Relationships between multiple Self-
positions and their communication to
other people
Isolated, confidential Connected to another people and
contexts
Communication in psychotherapy

18. If Self is a process – what is a result of
psychotherapy?
- The need for practice and social change:
• Development of communication studies and practices
• Connecting this communication principles with different contexts
(education, research, business etc)
• Attention to everyday communication process as a kind of practice

19. Elena.grebenyuk@gmail.com
www.elenagrebenyuk.wordpress.com
International Research Conference
«Communication as a discipline and as
a field: Sharing experiences to
construct a dialogue»
Moscow, Russia, July 9-11, 2015