Decentering Relational Theory

Decentering Relational Theory PDF Author: Lewis Aron
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351625527
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Book Description
Decentering Relational Theory: A Comparative Critique invites relational theorists to contemplate the influence, overlaps, and relationship between relational theory and other perspectives. Self-critique was the focus of De-Idealizing Relational Theory. Decentering Relational Theory pushes critique in a different direction by explicitly engaging the questions of theoretical and clinical overlap – and lack thereof – with writers from other psychoanalytic orientations. In part, this comparison involves critique, but in part, it does not. It addresses issues of influence, both bidirectional and unidimensional. Our authors took up this challenge in different ways. Like our authors in De-Idealizing, writers who contributed to Decentering were asked to move beyond their own perspective without stereotyping alternate perspectives. Instead, they seek to expand our understanding of the convergences and divergences between different relational perspectives and those of other theories. Whether to locate relational thought in a broader theoretical envelope, make links to other theories, address critiques leveled at us, or push relational thinking forward, our contributors thought outside the box. The kinds of comparisons they were asked to make were challenging. We are grateful to them for having taken up this challenge. Decentering Relational Theory: A Comparative Critique will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists across the theoretical spectrum.

Social Decentering

Social Decentering PDF Author: Mark Redmond
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110515806
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Book Description
Social decentering theory was developed in response to the confusion created by the use of the term empathy and to a lesser extent, perspective-taking, to reflect a wide and varied set of human cognitive processes and behaviors. Theory of Social Decentering: A Theory of Other-Orientation Encompassing Empathy and Perspective-Taking, presents an innovative approach to the social cognitive process by which humans take into consideration the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and dispositions of other people. The multidimensional theory and measure of social decentering represents a unifying theory that identifies and incorporates key elements imbedded in other-oriented terms. The first chapters present the theory and development of a measure of social decentering in a complete and detailed manner examining the important role that social decentering plays in human communication. The remaining chapters of the book examine the role that social decentering, empathy, and perspective-taking play in the development and management of interpersonal relationships, in marital relationships, in teams and group interactions, and in the workplace. The final chapter examines the negative consequences to individuals, decisions, and relationships potentially created by engaging in social decentering. The appendices include copies of the measure of social decentering and the measure of relationship-specific social decentering. The book is of interest for graduates in communication studies, psychology, and sociology, and valuable for communication and social psychology scholars interested in empathy or perspective taking.

De-Idealizing Relational Theory

De-Idealizing Relational Theory PDF Author: Lewis Aron
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351625586
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Book Description
Self-examination and self-critique: for psychoanalytic patients, this is the conduit to growth. Yet within the field, psychoanalysts haven’t sufficiently utilized their own methodology or subjected their own preferred approaches to systematic and critical self-examination. Across theoretical divides, psychoanalytic writers and clinicians have too often responded to criticism with defensiveness rather than reflectivity. De-Idealizing Relational Theory attempts to rectify this for the relational field. This book is a first in the history of psychoanalysis; it takes internal dissension and difference seriously rather than defensively. Rather than saying that the other’s reading of relational theory is wrong, distorted, or a misrepresentation, this book is interested in querying how theory lends itself to such characterizations. How have psychoanalysts participated in conveying this portrayal to their critics? Might this dissension illuminate blind-spot(s) and highlight new areas of growth? It's a challenge to engage in psychoanalytic self-critique. To do so requires that we move beyond our own assumptions and deeply held beliefs about what moves the treatment process and how we can best function within it. To step aside from ourselves, to question the assumed, to take the critiques of others seriously, demands more than an absence of defensiveness. It requires that we step into the shoes of the psychoanalytic Other and suspend not only our theories, but our emotional investment in them. There are a range of ways in which our authors took up that challenge. Some revisted the assumptions that underlay early relational thinking and expanded their sources (Greenberg & Aron). Some took up specific aspects of relational technique and unpacked their roots and evolution (Mark, Cooper). Some offered an expanded view of what constitutes relational theory and technique (Seligman, Corbett, Grossmark). Some more directly critiqued aspects of relational theory and technique (Berman, Stern). And some took on a broader critique of relational theory or technique (Layton, Slochower). Unsurprisingly, no single essay examined the totality of relational thinking, its theoretical and clinical implications. This task would be herculean both practically and psychologically. We're all invested in aspects of what we think and what we do; at best, we examine some, but never all of our assumptions and ideas. We recognize, retrospectively, how very challenging a task this was; it asked writers to engage in what we might think of as a self-analysis of the countertransference. Taken together these essays represent a significant effort at self-critique and we are enormously proud of it. Each chapter critically assesses and examines aspects of relational theory and technique, considers its current state and its relations to other psychoanalytic approaches. De-Idealizing Relational Theory will appeal to all relational psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

Decentering International Relations

Decentering International Relations PDF Author: Doctor Meghana Nayak
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848139160
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
Decentering International Relations seeks to actively confront, resist, and rewrite International Relations (IR), a heavily politicized field that is deeply centered in the North/West and privileges certain perspectives, pedagogies, and practices. Is it possible to break the chain of signifiers that always leads IR studies back to the US and its European allies? Through engagement with a variety of theories (ranging beyond the usual 'mainstream' versus 'critical/alternative' binary), and conversations with scholars, activists, and students, the authors invite the reader to participate in an accessible yet provocative experiment to decentre the North/West when we learn, study and do IR. In particular, they examine how the pressing issues of 'human rights', 'globalization', 'peace and security', and 'indigeneity' are simultaneously normative inventions meant to sustain particular power structures and sites for insurgent and subversive attempts to live IR at the margins. Selbin and Nayak have written a remarkable and provocative re-envisioning of a globally important subject.

Decentering America

Decentering America PDF Author: Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781845452056
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430

Book Description
This is an introduction for academics, students, and poltical analysts to some of the latest trends in the study and state of culture and international history: modernity, NGOs, internationalism, cultural violence, the 'Romance of Resistance', and the culture of diplomacy.

Thinking with Soils

Thinking with Soils PDF Author: Juan Francisco Salazar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350109584
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
This book presents a novel and systematic social theory of soil, and is representative of the rising interest in 'the material' in social sciences. Bringing together new modes of 'critical description' with speculative practices and methods of inquiry, it contributes to the exploration of current transformations in socioecologies, as well as in political and artistic practices, in order to address global ecological change. The chapters in this edited volume challenge scholars to attend more carefully to the ways in which they think about soil, both materially and theoretically. Contributors address a range of topics, including new ways of thinking about the politics of caring for soils; the ecological and symbiotic relations between soils; how the productive capacities and contested governance of soils are deployed as matters of political concern; and indigenous ways of knowing and being with soil.

Aircraft Stories

Aircraft Stories PDF Author: John Law
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822383543
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
In Aircraft Stories noted sociologist of technoscience John Law tells “stories” about a British attempt to build a military aircraft—the TSR2. The intertwining of these stories demonstrates the ways in which particular technological projects can be understood in a world of complex contexts. Law works to upset the binary between the modernist concept of knowledge, subjects, and objects as having centered and concrete essences and the postmodernist notion that all is fragmented and centerless. The structure and content of Aircraft Stories reflect Law’s contention that knowledge, subjects, and—particularly— objects are “fractionally coherent”: that is, they are drawn together without necessarily being centered. In studying the process of this particular aircraft’s design, construction, and eventual cancellation, Law develops a range of metaphors to describe both its fractional character and the ways its various aspects interact with each other. Offering numerous insights into the way we theorize the working of systems, he explores the overlaps between singularity and multiplicity and reveals rich new meaning in such concepts as oscillation, interference, fractionality, and rhizomatic networks. The methodology and insights of Aircraft Stories will be invaluable to students in science and technology studies and will engage others who are interested in the ways that contemporary paradigms have limited our ability to see objects in their true complexity.

Debating Relational Psychoanalysis

Debating Relational Psychoanalysis PDF Author: Jon Mills
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100006803X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
In Debating Relational Psychoanalysis, Jon Mills provides an historical record of the debates that had taken place for nearly two decades on his critique of the relational school, including responses from his critics. Since he initiated his critique, relational psychoanalysis has become an international phenomenon with proponents worldwide. This book hopes that further dialogue may not only lead to conciliation, but more optimistically, that relational theory may be inspired to improve upon its theoretical edifice, both conceptually and clinically, as well as develop technical parameters to praxis that help guide and train new clinicians to sharpen their own theoretical orientation and therapeutic efficacy. Because of the public exchanges in writing and at professional symposiums, these debates have historical significance in the development of the psychoanalytic movement as a whole simply due to their contentiousness and proclivity to question cherished assumptions, both old and new. In presenting this collection of his work, and those responses of his critics, Mills argues that psychoanalysis may only advance through critique and creative refinement, and this requires a deconstructive praxis within the relational school itself. Debating Relational Psychoanalysis will be of interest to psychoanalysts of all orientations, psychotherapists, mental health workers, psychoanalytic historians, philosophical psychologists, and the broad disciplines of humanistic, phenomenological, existential, and analytical psychology.

Principles and Practices of Relational Psychotherapy

Principles and Practices of Relational Psychotherapy PDF Author: Rolf Holmqvist
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000523055
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
This book provides an overview of the basic principles in relational therapy, which, in combination with the latest research about the significance of the therapeutic relationship, makes it possible to present practical therapeutic tools and techniques to help the therapist make optimal use of the interaction between patient and therapist. It presents models and concepts in relational psychotherapy that may contribute to the patient’s development of relational and emotional competence, and to more authentic and meaningful ways of living with oneself and others. The book specially emphasizes the significance of the mutually constructed emotional interplay as the material for key experiences in the development of the patient – and therapist. The focus is on the usefulness of relational principles and research findings in psychotherapies of shorter duration, in primary care, psychiatric clinics, and private practice. Rich in clinical examples, Principles and Practices of Relational Psychotherapy is an extremely useful resource for psychotherapists and clinical psychologists in training and practice.

Decentering Subjectivity in Everyday Eating and Drinking

Decentering Subjectivity in Everyday Eating and Drinking PDF Author: Ali Lara
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000208761
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Book Description
This important book offers a model to analyze the configurations of reality as manifested in everyday practices of eating and drinking in relation to the development of human subjectivity. The author uses concrete examples from daily life related to eating and drinking habits such as "eating tacos" or "taking a shot of mezcal", to offer an interface of interaction between body/mind and material entities connecting all scales of reality. Borrowing scientific insights from molecular biology and neuroscience, combined with a touch of decolonial spirit, the author examines specific 'processes' and/or 'objects' triggered by eating and drinking events, such as the production of heat as you eat a taco, or the interchange of knowledge while drinking mezcal. The book develops an approach to human subjectivity informed by material and aesthetic encounters beyond the analysis of language, representation, and social structures and aims to contribute to the contemporary landscape of efforts decentering our understanding of both human and non-human affairs. With its multidimensional exploration of our relationship with food, this is thought-provoking reading for scholars and students in critical psychology, philosophy, and the social sciences.