On the Art of Reconstruction Personal Construct Therapy Casebook. R. A. Neimeyer and G. J. Neimeyer (Eds.) New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1987. (317 pp.) For the most part, personal construct theory literature is embodied in multiauthor volumes where the editor has given his contributors free range as to the topics addressed. This in itself has led to creative and exciting diversity in the application of a theory that invites such creativity and diversity. Thus politics, architecture, philosophy, metaphor, and management are found among the expected areas of therapy and the more abstract theoretical issues directly related to Kelly's own writings. Other titles have, of course, preempted a more specific focus, such as repertory grid technique and psychotherapy. In this Casebook, however, we have what is comparatively rare in the literature: a series of detailed accounts of therapeutic interaction in a number of different contexts, which promise to prove an invaluable contribution to our understanding of what was, after all, the focus of convenience of Kelly's work. The editors, Robert and Greg Neimeyer, introduce the studies with two excellent chapters giving us an orientation to the therapeutic application of the theory and techniques of assessment and strategy. Having read more "overviews" of Kelly's theory than there are chapters in his two volumes, I find Robert Neimeyer's discussion refreshingly lucid. He manages to expound the fundamental postulate and the 11 corollaries in remarkably few pages without losing any of the depth of the ideas through brevity. Similarly, Greg Neimeyer, while not attempting to cover all forms of eh'citation of a person's construing of things or of every type of grid, gives enough of what he himself calls the flavor of personal construct therapy to whet the appetite of someone new to this framework and to satisfy the more experienced reader by the freshness of its approach. The rest of the book is divided into sections on Individual Therapy, Marital and Family Therapy, Group Therapy, and Special Applications. Individual Therapy For me, overall, the first section provides the richest source of understanding of how the reconstruction process may work in therapy. Most notably, Leitner's chapter "Crisis of the Self: the terror of personal evolution," with its study of 28-year-old "Mike," shows us intimately not only the immense threat of change for a young man with multiple personality problems but, with admirable honesty, the processes undergone by the therapist himself. Although I would occasionally question the author's interpretation of the theory (for example, his understanding of Kelly's use of "Role," I have no doubt at all about his subsuming of what was happening for his client. There is a sense thoughout of a relationship in which two people are experimenting, taking risks, and ultimately, creating something new together. With Winter's case study of "Tom," where personal construct psychotherapy is presented as "a radical alternative to social skills training," we have a contribution of substance. The author combines a perceptive assessment of social skills approaches with a telling account of his work with his client. His examples of their conversations, although brief, illustrate very well some important moments of reconstruction for Tom. The point where he is considering "female psychology" and comes to the conclusion that women are "just like us, I suppose, really" seems to have freed him from some quite damaging stereotyping. The therapist's ability both to acknowledge the validity of Tom's views and, at times, to challenge them is clearly shown. Perhaps of all the presentations, this particular chapter (Chapter 7) points up most vividly the particular strengths of a personal construct approach in therapy. Of the other chapters in this section, Robert Neimeyer's study of "Tally" (Chapter 4), although giving us less insight into the clinician's own experience, clearly shows us the processes involved for the client, particularly in her changing relationship with her son. …
Read full abstract
Oct 1, 1991
Brent D Slife + 2
