The Encounter of Systemic Therapies with Constructionism: A Story yet to Be Explored?

The article focuses on the social constructionism of Gergen, Harré, Pearce, and Cronen which had the greatest influence on systemic psychotherapies. Thanks to this turning point, the focus shifted from the family to family-therapist interaction and to the therapist’s reflexive practices and an extraordinarily broad corpus of dialogical techniques was developed. However, this epistemological change has also been accompanied by a loss of interest in psychological disorders and related family contexts. A line of research, initiated by Guidano and further developed by the Family Semantic Polarities Model, which instead focused on these issues is presented. It offers a constructionist interpretation of four main psychological disorders and utilizes reflexivity as a way to understand these disorders and the related contexts. The article concludes that the future of systemic-constructionist therapies depends on their ability to provide creative and sustainable solutions to mental health issues, which now require a change in perspective, as widely recognized.