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Therapy as Discourse pp 45–69Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Researching the Discursive Construction of Subjectivity in Psychotherapy

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Part of the book series: The Language of Mental Health ((TLMH))

Abstract

In this chapter we explore, from a critical discursive perspective, the ways in which the clients’ subjectivity is manifested, negotiated, and transformed within psychotherapeutic conversations. More specifically, we review discursive research on psychotherapy process and outline the main ways in which subjectivity has been conceptualized and studied from a constructionist perspective. Next, we provide a case example of a family therapy and illustrate the use of subject positioning as an analytic tool for the investigation of the interactional processes implicated in the reconstruction of the clients’ subjectivity through therapy. Finally, we discuss the theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications of this work.

We would like to dedicate this chapter to the memory of Michael Guilfoyle, esteemed colleague and friend, whose work continues to inspire us.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Over the last 15 years, there has been a flourishing of studies that utilize conversation analysis (CA) to study the process of psychotherapy (e.g. Peräkylä, Antaki, Vehviläinen, & Leudar, 2008; Sutherland & Strong, 2011); although we consider this body of work highly relevant to both psychotherapy research and clinical practice, we have not included it in this discussion, given that CA makes no reference to or claims about the speakers’ internal processes or sense of self. Furthermore, we do not discuss studies that rely upon a dialogical perspective, as the majority of these hold a constructivist perspective and tend to focus on the client’s talk studying subjectivity as an internal entity.

  2. 2.

    Relational Mind in Events of Change in Multi-actor Therapeutic Dialogues—for an overview, see Seikkula et al. (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Evrinomy Avdi & Eugenie Georgaca

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  1. Evrinomy Avdi
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  2. Eugenie Georgaca
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Correspondence to Evrinomy Avdi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    Olga Smoliak

  2. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Tom Strong

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Avdi, E., Georgaca, E. (2018). Researching the Discursive Construction of Subjectivity in Psychotherapy. In: Smoliak, O., Strong, T. (eds) Therapy as Discourse. The Language of Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93067-1_3

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