Psychotherapy integration: A postmodern critique.

Abstract

This article critiques major trends in the psychotherapy integration movement from the postmodern perspectives of contextualism and pluralism. A contextualist position asserts that psychotherapeutic concepts and interventions can be understood only within the linguistic, theoretical, and ideological frameworks in which they are embedded. Therefore, they take on new meanings when extracted from their original context and are incorporated into an eclectic therapy. Pluralism holds that there is no single theoretical, epistemological, or methodological approach that is preeminent and no one, correct integrative system toward which the field of psychotherapy is evolving. In light of this critique, we argue that the goal of the integration movement should be to maintain an ongoing dialogue among proponents of different theories and world views, thereby allowing for the clarification of differences as well as the judicious Integration of alternative perspectives and techniques. The article also spells out the implications of contextualism and pluralism for psychotherapy theory, practice, and research.