Science and Family Therapy

Family therapists are being exhorted to adopt a social constructionist epistemology and to abandon science as a valid form of knowing. Epistemological objections to science are usually directed at ‘positivism’, an outmoded view that is largely discredited among practising scientists. Contemporary sc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family therapy 1997-11, Vol.19 (4), p.401-415
Main Author: Legg, Charles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Epistemology
Family psychotherapy. Systemic therapy
Family Therapy
Medical sciences
Methodology (Philosophical)
Positivism
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychotherapies. Psychological and clinical counseling
Relationship
Science
Social Constructionism
Treatments
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Summary:Family therapists are being exhorted to adopt a social constructionist epistemology and to abandon science as a valid form of knowing. Epistemological objections to science are usually directed at ‘positivism’, an outmoded view that is largely discredited among practising scientists. Contemporary science, is rather, constructionist, differing from other constuctionist approaches only in ways of arbitrating between world views. Criticisms aimed at science apply to all forms of discourse, including family therapy. I conclude that science has failed family therapy at the practical, not the philosophical level.
ISSN:0163-4445
1467-6427
DOI:10.1111/1467-6427.00058