In my day I had never heard Kelly express any such view. Quite the contrary,
he seemed always to enjoy the varied applications of the rep grid paradigm and
the chance to pull the 6-inch slide rule from his shirt pocket to calculate the
probability of a certain index score on a grid.
Jack Adams-Webber, present in Kelly's final years, may have more or different
information.
My (unsolicited) hunch about this myth is that PCPeople, since Kelly's time,
have tended to gravitate naturally into two groups, those who are naturally
interested in the quantitative and the analytic (the gridheads) and those who
are naturally interested in the therapeutic and narrative features of PCP.
Sometimes I have indeed observed that one group disparages the other (although
Kelly himself had the talent to subsume and enjoy both modes of thinking). My
specific hunch is that the "myth" originates here, where people with one point
of view sorta wanta put down the other. My own view, fairly strongly held, is
that both views are inevitable (because of people's individual talent and
interest), that they are both valid, and that one of the great strengths of PCP
is that they can both exist and, in fact, strengthen each other.
Rue L. Cromwell
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From: Gwyneth Cheeseman <ecrchsmn@reading.ac.uk>
Subject: Help with origin of Kelly "myth"
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On the pcp oral tradition circuit I have heard it said that Dr Kelly
(being pc - does that mean we are politically correct psychologists?)
regretted having designed repertory grids because of the uses to which
the technique had been put and the way in which people unfamiliar with
his writings had led to PCT becoming associated in some peoples's minds
with grids as the be-all and end-all.
What is the origin of this, and if it is not a myth, has anyone the
reference? Maureen Pope suggested we ask you-all.
Thank you very much.
Gwyneth Cheeseman
Department of Community Studies
University of Reading
England
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