> Doesn't this gloss over the fact that their deviant contruals are even more
> trouble to themselves? Paranoid thoughts and terrors are no fun, even if,
> from within the frame of reference of the sufferer, they may seem
> justified; a lot of schizophrenics are very unhappy; a lot commit suicide.
Indeed, it appears that my terminology would gloss over the ways in which
those constructions are troublesome to the person who enacts roles on their
basis.
In the long run, I might [as a value judgment concerning my own role
enactments] concern myself with the ways in which deviant construers are
troublesome to those whose construct systems lead to such construals.
However, people who construe deviantly do not get attention until the
conduct guided by their constructions become troublesome to significant
others. If the people who report hallucination would sit quietly in their
apartments, they would never earn the tag schizophrenic." They eat, sleep,
watch television, walk about in their kitchens, in much the same way as do we
[who says that they "distort reality???"]. When they go to the grocery story,
talk aloud as though they were addressing a dialogue partner that no one else
sees, etc., they they become problematic.
There are other ways that they become problematic to others, as well --
but, I am trying to say that they don't earn a categorization until they become
problems to significant other. Then they get a tag -- and our system then
calls for circumventing the problems they create.
I would like to keep in mind, and to continue to remind others, that the
basic issue is the problematic quality of their deviant constructions.
If we attempt to build useful psychological theory, we need to work our
formulations which frame unwanted deviant behaviors -- and that means that we
need to work out formulations about both wanted socially warranted as well as
unwanted deviant behaviors.
Obvious "truisms"!!!
Jim Mancuso
--
James C. Mancuso Dept. of Psychology
15 Oakwood Place University at Albany
Delmar, NY 12054 1400 Washington Ave.
Tel: (518)439-4416 Albany, NY 12222
Mailto:mancusoj@capital.net
http://www.capital.net/~mancusoj
A website dedicated to a personal view of Per-
sonal Construct Psychology
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