Psychotherapia academica universitatis: A philosophical argument for the academic discipline of psychotherapy

Abstract

An academic psychotherapy (psychotherapia academica universitatis) can only be termed as such when the inhomogeneous movementspecific models, methods, and practices of psychotherapy (psychotherapia) enter into a systematic dialogue of reflection both with each other and with other cultural constructs so that an increasingly differentiated level of self-conception in terms of psychotherapeutic modes of thinking and acting may gradually emerge, which, not least, may render visible their limits of meaning and the commitment dimensions of various psychotherapeutic findings. This chapter methodically provides arguments for this claim, which I endeavor with reference to arguments found in Friedrich G. Wallner’s “constructive realism” (CR). CR is a cultural-constructivist approach to the philosophy of science which was conceived in the 1990s at the University of Vienna. In the course of a constructive-realist discussion, it becomes plausible that scientific activities in the academic sense are neither the representation, description, or explanation of a prefabricated world nor the unraveling, decoding, or deciphering of some structures of objective reality, but exclusively the production, application, and reflection of various contexts of argumentation and action (“microworlds”). A short introduction to constructive-realist methodology is followed by the philosophical argumentation for the academic discipline of psychotherapy (psychotherapia academica universitatis) and the application of terminological principles of CR to the therapeutic practice of psychotherapy (psychotherapia). The chapter will demonstrate that, because of its pluralism of arguments, its linguistic diversity, and its methodological heterogeneity, contemporary psychotherapy has not only a vast head start in research theory but also enormous reflectionscientific advantages in comparison with a large number of other academic disciplines.