Masculinity, rationality, and family therapy

Abstract

Contemporary accounts of masculinity have revealed masculine identity to be a fragile achievement. The ‘deconstruction’ of masculinity apparent in Western culture might also be seen in a powerful way in therapy, with the appearance of moments of breakdown in rationality, followed by the gradual articulation of an apparently nonrational position. The particular nature of this position will be as an expression of the ‘semiotic’: a breakthrough of the body into consciousness, an experience of being govened by something outside oneself which is nevertheless representative of the ‘truth’ of one's emotional state. Two illustrations are given of moments in family therapy where masculine assumptions appear to give way to a more confusional and fluid mode of experience.