Beyond psychological enframing through hermeneutics, creativity, and therapeutic praxis

This dissertation considers the psychotherapeutic relationship as a hermeneutic practice. The purpose of this study was to question the role of theory in psychotherapy, distinguish practice from theory, and explore psychotherapy as a hermeneutic endeavor. Moving beyond psychological interpretations (beyond enframing) of the human being to hermeneutic interpretation of being-in-the-world explored the limitations of psychological theory as applied to an actual person. A hermeneutic approach to the psychotherapeutic relationship was grounded in the work of Gadamer, Heidegger, and Bourdieu. This perspective emphasized praxis over theory, relationship over technique, and creativity over constructs.;The rationale for using hermeneutics for the research approach was entwined with interpreting psychotherapy as a hermeneutic endeavor. Hermeneutics was both the approach taken (the method for this study) and the subject of that approach (psychotherapy). The hermeneutic circle, emphasizing the temporal nature of psychotherapy, was a fundamental requirement of the method.;This study was a hermeneutic analysis of a particular therapeutic practice that was, like hermeneutics, atheoretical. It included textual material representing a tradition of practice of one expert practitioner who served as the participant of the study. The researcher and practitioner independently selected significant events from the researcher's therapeutic experience with the practitioner based on specific criteria including decisions made, critical moments, transitional moments and resolution of important issues. Archival texts from the researcher's journals referencing these events were incorporated with text from dialogues on practice between researcher and participant. An analysis uncovered the narrative structure of the material to reveal the ontology of this practice.;The analysis unfolded through arcs of research that lead to the development of arcs of practice, containing interpretations that best exemplified the practitioner's practices in terms of philosophical outlook and decisions made. The arcs, which could endlessly unfold, interpreted many consistent patterns including time, intention, manipulation, organicity, and intuition, amongst others. The results of this inquiry revealed the overall nature of the practice to be reflective and active, with a guiding principle of practice wisdom. The benefits of this study included recognizing effective practices with implications for the significance in practice of relationship, flexibility, creativity, and embodied dialogue.