Postmodern Therapy: Strengths and Weaknesses

Postmodern Therapy: Strengths and Weaknesses

Postmodern therapy is a relatively recent therapeutic technique that strives to bring the radical questioning of accepted truths of postmodern philosophers to the practical process of counseling. Its focus on the personal truth of the client, rather than the objective authority of the therapist links it to the ideas and assumptions of Rogerian, Humanist, and Gestalt therapies. The most unique aspect of postmodern therapy is that adherents that subscribe to this school reject the idea that there is any objective measurement of mental health that transcends culture. For example, no so long ago, homosexuality was officially classified as a mental illness by the DSM, and while visionaries who claim to be religiously inspired were once accepted as saints, today they might be classified as schizophrenic. What has changed is not the condition of homosexuality or the nature of hallucinations so much as the way society sees these conditions, although being treated as pathological, normal, or extraordinary obviously impacts the self-image of the affected subject.

In postmodern therapy, the therapist discourages the client from seeming him or herself as broken and mentally diseased, since notions of mental pathology are not extrinsic to the client's cultural context. The therapist attempts to find a workable solution to client's problems in the here and now, and does not preoccupy sessions with questions regarding the objective truth about consciousness and personhood (Notes: Postmodern therapy, 2009). The client's needs often direct the session: postmodern therapy is a dialogue between patient and therapist, whereby the therapist attempts to create a more livable way of being in the world for the client. "In postmodern Dynamic Neurocognitive psychotherapy, a unique kind of a dialogue or a conversation between the therapist and the patient emerges, whereby spoken language, ranging from simple words and instructions to intensely personal, infinitely complex narratives and dialogues, becomes the main medium of change" (Postmodern therapy, 2009, Depression Guide). This approach is taken from the postmodern philosophy of language, which holds language itself to be culturally contextual notion -- the postmodern therapist and the patient create their own language, and attempt to understand the client's life narrative. Collaborative language systems focuses on the collaborative dialogue between therapist and client, where the two analyze and change the client's use of language about his or her problems to formulate a workable solution (Postmodern therapy, 2009, Depression Guide).

Another type of postmodern therapies is narrative therapy, which tries to help clients see how cultural narratives have shaped the subject's way of being in the world. By seeing their life narratives as constructed, clients are free to rewrite those narratives in a more positive fashion. Similarly, solution-focused therapy focuses on "the construction of solutions to problems" and building new connections: the focusing past is not meaningful, because the past is always interpreted through the lens of the present, so what is more important is creating a fruitful approach to living today (Postmodern therapy, 2009, Depression Guide). The therapist acts as a facilitator, and since there are no universal truths, the goal of the therapy is to find a solution that is client-specific.