| This dissertation traces recent trends in physics, philosophy, biology, psychology and human development and their impact on how psychotherapists view psychopathology, change, the nature of the therapist-patient relationship, and important therapeutic qualities. The movement from a mechanistic, reductionistic, deterministic paradigm to a complex, probabilistic, interdependent understanding of reality is followed through evolutions in cognitive and psychodynamic schools of thought that have arrived at a view of the therapist as a "participant observer." This "transformational" or "co-constructivist" view of the therapeutic relationship is examined for its emphasis on here-and-now relational phenomena as a primary avenue of therapeutic change. Human beings are discussed as complex adaptive systems who are inevitably engaged in an on-going process of reorganization and change that requires an openness to novelty within a context of self and self-other validation. Life-span development theory and contemporary research on infant and adult development illuminate the importance of being known as vital to healthy development throughout life. It is argued that therapists should provide an important experience of confirmation, continuity and contradiction (Kegan, 1982) regardless of therapist theoretical perspective or of patient diagnosis. Mindfulness is proposed as a specific state of consciousness important to develop in the psychologist for the purpose of providing a balance between empathic attunement and observing ego capacities. |
