Counseling Without Truth: Toward a Neopragmatic Foundation for Counseling Practice

Abstract

The author presents an overview of contemporary developments in philosophy regarding the status of truth and discusses the implications of these ideas for the practice of counseling. Counseling without truth is presented as a desirable option when a neopragmatic frame of reference is adopted.

Relational and Transcendental Humanism: Exploring the Consequences of a Thoroughly Pragmatic Humanism

“…However, over the last several decades, with the advent of postmodernism and the linguistic turn in philosophy, pragmatism has been resurrected as a vital system of thought (polkinghorne, 1992). This new, revitalized pragmatism has been called neopragmatism (Goldberg, 2002;Hansen, 2007). The basic assumptions of neopragmatism are fundamentally the same as the original pragmatism.…”

“…The goal of counseling, though, would be the creation of adaptational narratives, not the discovery of objective truths (Frank & Frank, 1991;Hansen, 2007;White & Epston, 1990). The key criterion for adopting narratives would be whether the client found them useful.…”

“…The basic assumptions of neopragmatism are fundamentally the same as the original pragmatism. However, there is a strong linguistic element to neopragmatism that was not present in classical pragmatism (Hansen, 2007). Language is idealized as an all-important human tool by the neopragmatists.…”

Copying and Coping Conceptualizations of Language: Counseling and the Ethic of Appreciation for Human Differences

“…It does not seem to make a difference whether this system is grounded in some ultimate reality or not (Frank and Frank 1991;Hansen 2002). Therefore, rather than view counseling theories as accurate copies of some transcendent truth about human nature, theories should be viewed as linguistic structures that can be offered to clients as an alternative way to understand their experience (Hansen 2006a(Hansen , 2007.…”

Neopragmatic Thought and Counseling Values: Reconsidering the Role of Values in Counseling From an Alternative Epistemological Foundation

“…Although this history is composed of incredibly diverse elements, the search for truth has been a common objective to virtually all schools of philosophy, at least until the late 19th century (Anderson, 1990;Hansen, 2007a;Rorty, 1999). This goal of finding truth is rooted in ancient Greek philosophy and was further endorsed during the Enlightenment.…”