METHODOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTS OF THE COMPARATIVE MODEL OF PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC ASSISTANCE TO THE FAMILY

Abstract

The article substantiates the necessity of a comparative, systematic and comparative methodology for integrating a set of scientifically proven and practically tested approaches to the provision of psychotherapeutic care in family therapy. The author traces the connection between psychotherapeutic concepts and their methods at the level of theoretical substantiation, borrowing ideas, in particular between individual psychology and transactional analysis; logotherapy and existential analysis; psychodrama and Gestalt therapy; psychosynthesis and Gestalt therapy; humanistic and existential psychology; existential and transpersonal psychology; body dynamics and transpersonal psychology; neuro-linguistic programming and systemic family therapy; Gestalt therapy and systemic family therapy. The issue of creating mental maps of psychological therapeutic systems is revealed. The relevance of the inter-paradigmatic convergence of psychological psychotherapeutic systems in contrast to the previous polar and competitive period of their origin is stated. The comparative perspective of the analysis of the multidimensional plane of psychotherapeutic care in family therapy is outlined with the substantiation of seven methodological approaches: psychotechnical; ontological; systemic; transtheoretical existential-systemic; structural; spectral; biographical-existential. The key dichotomous constructs that define each of the methodological approaches and describe the elements of analysis in the process of providing psychological assistance to a family are revealed. These constructs include the following: protection – desire; conscious – unconscious; boundaries – context; challenges – realism; dynamics – complexity; space – time. It is proved that the comparative methodology introduces specific-oriented outlines into family psychotherapy and epistemologically covers fundamentally different levels of the client’s inner world, which as a result creates many special (paradigmatic) imprints of clients’ requests from psychologists of different schools.