Self Research

The intersection of therapy and research

Ian Law

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780415599306
• eBook ISBN: 9781317935261
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

'Self research' is both a therapeutic and a research endeavour that enables the subject of the research to interpret and validate their own data. In Self Research, Ian Law outlines and draws together the theoretical, institutional and practice elements of this work, and offers illustrative examples of how different elements of the methodology can be applied in practice. He proposes a methodology for the practice of self research that is based on an epistemological approach, thereby closing the interpretative gap between the researcher and the researched.

Engaging in therapeutic work with those who experience their sense of self as problematic can be transformative in two key respects: it enables them to produce a sense of self which acknowledges that an understanding of one's self is discursively produced, and it helps locate that sense of self within its historical, political and social context. By setting out the theoretical underpinnings of the process across a range of different contexts, Law develops a methodology for doing 'talk therapy', and researching the self that are one and the same.

This methodology allows those who are both the subject and object of their own research to have the authority to determine its meaning, relevance and validity. The book will be essential for advanced students of counselling, along with practicing therapists in psychotherapy across different schools of practice.

1 Theorising the ‘self’

Introduction: Poststructuralism, critical theory and the problem of subjectivity

This chapter is concerned with the theorising of the self, how it is theorised in everyday experience and how it could, or should, be theorised within the practise of self research. Some epistemological formulations of the self, which are commonly encountered in therapeutic practices, are outlined along with the major problem of accounting for subjectivity. It is argued here that if a theory of self is to be chosen then the criteria for such a choice, both positive and negative, need to be articulated (Curt, 1994; Hartsock, 1987). These criteria are then applied to the choice of two theoretical traditions – poststructuralist and critical theory – which have struggled with the matter of politics and subjectivity if theorising the self. A consideration is also given to the dominant influence of the axis between Freud and Marx in current Western thought. A rapprochement is proposed between these two traditions at the various points they appear to converge. Finally, these theoretical traditions are applied in formulating a set of principles for theorising the self that can act as an ‘ethic’ in the practise of self research.

Theorising the ‘self’

The rhetorical question: ‘why attempt to theorise the self?’ can be answered with the counterclaim that we cannot not theorise the self. The notion of ‘the self’ is itself a theoretical category, a symbol, a signifier (Hacking, 2002). Indeed to entertain such a notion as the self is to begin to theorise it. It is a signifier so well naturalised that, to many, asking what is the ‘self’ would not make sense. But theorising the self in terms of subjectivity and identity has been a constant theme in Western philosophy and social and political theory (Danzinger, 1990). Prior to the period known, in the West, as the Enlightenment what may have passed for a self was more likely to be the domain of the Church and a theory of the self was predominantly theology’s conceptualising of the soul (Foucault, 1997; 1988). One of the effects of the Enlightenment was to loosen theology’s monopoly on theorising that made it possible for a series of secular philosophies to compete with the sacred in the search for meaning (Taylor, 1992). These secular theories have been informed either by the scientism of ‘modernism’, or the mystifications of ‘romanticism’. Currently, these traditions of thought continue to dominate popular conceptions of what it is ‘to be’, and how we should be, as a ‘natural’ person, like two sides of a coin of self and identity continually spinning. One side may land face up for a while but its obverse is ever present.

Following Gergen (1991), the current manifestation of the two traditions of romanticism and modernism can be identified as occupying one or more of eight strands of thought in relation to their application in various psychotherapy practices: the theological; Aboriginal-spiritual; New Age; community-relationship; the psychological; biological determinist; social determinist; and the intrapsychic. If we research the self we may bump up against these taken for granted theories of self that, if left unquestioned, bring the research to an end as they are commonly presented as ‘off the rack’ explanations of self that beg no further questions and require no further explanation. A more ‘critical’ approach would interrogate these theories. Consequently it is important than anyone managing the process of self research should be familiar with these epistemologies and match them against their ability to account for the recursive interplay between volition and determinism that is subjectivity. They are now outlined briefly below.

Theories of the self: Eight epistemologies

Theology

In terms of sheer numbers of adherents, theology still has a place in Western thought. The congregations of fundamentalist, charismatic and spiritualist churches continue to rise steadily. This is combined with mainstream theology’s attempts to regain a mainstream relevancy (Blond, 1998) by attempting to identify spirituality in current philosophical thought and social theory indicative of Derrida’s (1978) claims that ‘difference produces God in the same way it originates “identity”’ (Hart, 1998: 273). Pastoral counselling, although in many ways an insular practice retaining a position outside the professional secular mainstream, still occupies a significant place in the provision of counselling and therapy practices.

Aboriginal-spiritual

Within the context of Western modernism, traces of aboriginal culture persist and have, indeed, undergone a renaissance within definable cultural groups such as Native North Americans and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Theories of the self relating to spirituality see identity in relationships between the cultural, spiritual and physical world (Aboriginal Health Services, 1994).

New Age

Gergen (1991) has critiqued the ‘new-age movement’ as constituting a backlash – a reaction to the excesses of the modern scientific era. Rather than being ‘new’ it is, largely, a return to certain cultural practices and beliefs that would have been dominant in the Western world at the height of the romantic era. Trying to flip itself over into cultural view New Age therapies fit with US individualism in their encouragement of ‘self-actualising’ and ‘self-development’ (Furedi, 2004).

Community and relationship

Many people could not entertain a sense of their self outside of their relationship to gender, race, sexuality, position in the family or the community to which they experience a sense of belonging (Myerhoff, 1986). Anthropology (Crotty, 1998), ethnography (Altheide and Johnson, 1994) and social role theory consider how identity is shaped and maintained within a context of culture and relationship. Such theories of self might focus on group and cultural experience, action and resistance in the identification of the effects of class, race, gender and other forms of collective oppression.

Psychology

Psychology has been the instrument for the scientising of self, primarily through quantification and compartmentalising of personhood into characteristics of personality (Rose, 1985). Dominated by positivist methodology and the technology of psychometric testing, mainstream psychology has, as its subject, the unitary, actualised, transcendent self and reflects Western popular cultural belief (Henriques, 1998; Curt, 1994).

Biological determinism

The ‘self’ is a psycho-biological entity with a biological aetiology. Fixed character traits, cultural identity, IQ, personality characteristics, gender differences, sexuality and compulsive behaviours and a host of others are seen to be genetically inherited. A cultural faith in a biological determinist epistemology provides a basis for the credibility of the DSM project of the American Psychiatric Association (APA, 1994) and the International Classification of Disease used by European psychiatry (WHO, 1999) whereby reductionist thinking leads to determinism (Read, 2005).

Social determinism

Social determinism shows itself as the obverse of biology in the coinage of determinism pointing to our socialisation as the determinant of our personality, behaviour and sense of self (Sayers, 1986). Pop-psychology and folk wisdom informed by forms of social learning theory assert such beliefs as watching violence on television will make children more violent (Bandura, 1977). Therapies that draw on social determinist notions of self seek to understand the individual as a product of his or her environment.

Intrapsychic

The structuralist and functionalist theories of Freud put aspects of our self beyond our reach in his theorising of the unconscious, and then offered us hope of catching glimpses of it through his methodology of psychoanalysis. In some ways Freud bridged the mystical and scientific at a time when the romantic era was giving way to the modern. Psychoanalytic notions of intrapsychic forces, drives and symbolism have permeated Western culture (Parker, 1997) to the extent that they have become naturalised ideas often operating invisibly and unnamed (Steedman, 1995).

All ‘talk therapies’ apply theories of the self. One or more of the above epistemological positions will be represented in part or full in any given therapeutic approach. These theoretical positions may be applied deliberately and methodically or unwittingly as the expression of naturalised beliefs, common sense and folk-wisdom in a piecemeal and contradictory theoretical tangle. Giddens calls this ‘slippage’ (1984: 374) between lay and professional frames of meaning ‘double hermeneutics’ (1991). If we do not hold this taken for granted reality up to scrutiny we risk reproducing it blindly as part of the cultural norm. Consequently it is important to clarify what theoretical conception of the self are being employed and what justification we have for adopting any given theoretical stance.

The cursory tour of eight epistemologies of the self as previously outlined illustrates how theories of the self operate and have effects, which are experienced as ‘real’, on any therapeutic engagement whether the theoretical formulations are coherent, contradictory, unwitting or intentional. This leads us to another question. Not: why theorise? But, how should a theoretical position be chosen? This is an ethical question of how theory is selected and justified rather than an epistemological question of what theory is right and true. Taking politics and personal agency into account involves praxis: a collapsing of theory and practise into theory as practise. In this way theories of the self are then used rather than simply defined.

The problem of subjectivity

Most of the theoretical positions outlined above act to construct a self that is unitary, fixed and immutable. This can lead to modernist practices of promoting the achievement of insight, reliance on psychotropic treatment or, alternatively, a romanticist practise of self-actualisation through self-development. Yet determinist and individualist epistemologies alike have failed to adequately address the problem of subjectivity. This can be put simply as the problem of how a subject can be theorised as experiencing volition and agency within the context of biology, culture, relationship and spirituality (Weedon, 1987). Morrow and Brown (1994) identify the ‘dialectic between human agency and social structure’ (p. 218). A theory of the self must, then, theorise this dialectic and allow for the subject to experience a recursive relationship between personal agency and the constituting of these determining parameters. For example, Walkerdine’s (1981/1990) research demonstrated how girls and women teachers ‘are not unitary subjects uniquely positioned, but are produced as a nexus of subjectivities, in relations of power which are constantly shifting, rendering them at one moment powerful and at another powerless’ (p. 3).

The criteria for choosing a theory

If we believe that theory has real effects and that to theorise is an act in itself then, like the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, theorising can be seen as a deliberate political activity. This activity of theory-as-action can be called praxis.

I would further suggest that theories of the self are inseparable from the act of various talk therapies. In fact, the work of theorising is the therapy and the therapy is the continuous process of theorising. If this much is true then it requires us to be clear about what theory we choose and what work we intend it to do.

In choosing what theories, and critiques of theories, of the self to apply in this discursive approach to self research I have applied two negative and three positive criteria. I do not want to select theory on the basis of its 1) author’s politics or practices, 2) its logocentrism and its author’s acolyte status. However, I do want to select theory on the basis of its 1) cultural appropriateness and specificity, 2) its stated politics of emancipation, resistance and critique of power and 3) its utility, or the work it can do.

Negative criteria

Theory production cannot be seen outside of the context within which it was produced and it is important to understand the social, political, cultural and historical contingencies of the formulations of theorists and philosophers. However, there is also a point beyond which the biographical details of the author become a distraction to understanding and relating to their theory and ‘moral transgressions’ are used to discount the validity of their work. For example, the US-based academic Paul de Man was largely responsible for popularising Derrida’s notion of deconstruction in literary criticism in the US. When it was revealed that de Man had written pro-Nazi and, therefore, anti-semitic views in his book review column in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir in the early 1940s (Derrida, 1998; Norris, 1988), those who had opposed the popularity of deconstruction dismissed Derrida’s work as amoral and reckless. Louis Althusser (1993) was vilified after spending the remaining years of his life in a psychiatric institution instead of standing trial for the strangulation of his wife. Foucault’s homosexuality and his attendance at Californian bathhouses were referred to in dismissing his work on discipline, punishment and the history of sexuality as merely personal interests (Eribon, 1992; Halperin, 1995; Macey, 1994). Similarly an idea can be overvalued if it is not recognised as being locally contingent. It can become vulnerable to logocentrism and theorists can be revered as cult figures so that a follower of Foucault becomes a Foucauldian rather than a person interested in Foucauldian ideas.

Positive criteria

Theory is culture bound and, as such, requires us to recognise the cultural and historical conditions of its production and take care in our attempts to demonstrate its relevance beyond its own cultural-historical context. Theory is informed by politics so it must be recognised that the conditions of possibility for critical theory involved pre-Second World War Nazism and post-war attempts to understand how such fascism and anti-semitism could have flourished. Stanley Milgram’s (Milgram, 1974; Blass, 2000) work on obedience to authority, and the notion of an authoritarian personality (Adorno et dl., 1950), was used to provide an explanation of the ‘I was just following orders’ testimony at the Nuremberg Trials. It should also be recognised that poststructuralist theory emerged at a time of student revolt and discontent with French Communist Party theory and practise. The German heritage of critical theory and the French heritage of post-structuralist theory also need to be situated in the context of the cultural and political history of Franco-German relations (Poster, 1989).

The theory elaborated here needs to relate to theories of the self that have direct application and is required to sit within a context of the politics of emancipation, provide a credible critique of the practices and effects of power and provides a working basis that facilitates acts of resistance to the abusive application of power. Consequently, the appropriateness of a theory of the self, when these criteria are applied, lies in its utility. The eight epistemologies previously outlined can commonly be found in accounts of the production and articulation of a self.

Two of the traditions of critical thought that, in my view, have such utility are ‘poststructuralist’ and ‘critical theory’. What follows is a consideration of how aspects of each of these traditions might be combined to provide a working theoretical frame that places a notion of the ‘self’ in a political context, which has direct application in a therapeutic context, and provides us with an understanding of the self that can inform the practise of self research.

Critical and poststructuralist theory

It is proposed here that the two traditions of critical and poststructuralist theory have a number of points of convergence that can be useful to apply in the development of an epistemology from which a self-research methodology can be developed and then practised within the discipline of family therapy. There are also considerable tensions for which no attempt at resolution is made here. In order to outline the points of convergence it is necessary to provide a brief history of these traditions, particularly in relation to their respective struggle with subjectivity and politics.

Critical theory beginnings

What has become to be known as critical theory emanated from the Institute of Social Research founded in 1923. Its founders are widely recognised as being Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer (Parker, 1997). Horkheimer replaced the first director, Carl Grunberg, in 1931. Adorno joined in the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Concepts for Critical Psychology: Disciplinary Boundaries Re-thought
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Theorising the 'self'
• 2 Family therapy as a potential disciplinary site for the practise of self research
• 3 A discursive approach to family therapy
• 4 A discursive approach to research
• 5 The methodology of self research
• 6 Elements of practice: ADD, addictions and the DSM
• 7 Self Research: An illustration
• 8 Reflexivity: A critical analysis of self research
• References
• Index