Re: PCT and Feminisms: asking again...

Ana Catina (catina@Psyres-Stuttgart.DE)
Tue, 21 May 1996 12:38:00 +0200 (MET DST)

Dear Alessandra,
I have some problems in understanding the question of "can PCP and
feminismus cohabit"...
I do think that a PCP stance might be helpful in undestanding
and implementing a new construct about women. According to
PCP, we can assume that the theoretical problem might be: society
(vaguely
said!) share a construct about the social roles of women that does not
correspond to the reality anymore. In my imagination, the social
construing can represent a sort of commonality of construing of a certain
group or culture, ie results from a sort of synthesis between individual
construing. Is this true? Let say it is. Then:
The practical question can be: how to change this social
construct about women? Shall we not go back to try to change individuals'
construing about us? The process begins at home: brothers, fathers,
friend, spouses. If we can not prove them that we are a different kind of
women than those they are traditionnally construing (I underline prove and
oppose it to persuade), we probably have less chances to change the
construing of the group they represent. Feminism is in this way an
individual task first. I heard from my clients a lot of "my husband does
not understand or allow me to...". Whose problem is this? His or hers?
If she is not able to negotiate a change in his construct about her
properly, she has to make a
new option and not blame him for lack of understanding, hasn't she. But
do all women want to change something in their status, or is there still
a large part being afraid of the implications of such changes?
When one speaks about changeing a construct, one has to consider how
important is the respective construct within a system; what consequence
implies this change, ie. how the result of the change itself is anticipated
etc. Research
also has shown that the change- let us call it reconstruing- could
be promoted, if an alternative construing is available. If no
alternative construing is available, it has to be developed. Research data
have also proved that reconstruing is more likely to occur if the
alternative construing develops orthogonally to the
construct/s to be change, ie independent from it/them. I should add,
or at least complementary. Sorry for
remainding such stuff. Perhaps considering them can help co-habiting. But
I thing that the primary condition for any co-habiting is a reduced
radicalism.


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Dr.Phil. Ana Catina
Center for Psychotherapy Research
Christian Belser Str. 79a
70597 Stuttgart
Germany

Fax number. *49 711 687 6902
Phone 49 711 6781 411
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