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Related Experiment Videos

Muddles, bewilderment, and practice theory.

S de Shazer1

  • 1Brief Therapy Center, Milwaukee WI 53216.

Family Process
|December 1, 1991
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Family therapy theories often suffer from conceptual muddles. Clarifying distinctions between therapist-inclusive/exclusive descriptions, explanation/description, and ideology/grounded theory can reduce this lack of clarity.

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Area of Science:

  • Family Therapy
  • Conceptual Clarity
  • Theoretical Muddles

Background:

  • Conceptual schemes rely on clear distinctions for effective metaphors.
  • Muddles arise from unmade, unnecessary, or blurred distinctions.
  • The field of family therapy exhibits various conceptual muddles within its theories.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify and describe conceptual muddles in family therapy theories.
  • To propose that specific distinctions are crucial for theoretical clarity.
  • To argue that minimizing these distinctions leads to confusion.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis of family therapy theories.
  • Identification of problematic distinctions and their consequences.
  • Argumentation for the utility of specific conceptual distinctions.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Family therapy theories contain muddles stemming from unclear distinctions.
  • Distinctions between therapist-inclusive/exclusive descriptions, explanation/description, and ideology/grounded theory are identified as critical.
  • Minimizing or blurring these distinctions contributes to a lack of clarity.

Conclusions:

  • Clarifying key distinctions can enhance the conceptual clarity of family therapy.
  • Recognizing and maintaining useful distinctions is essential for theoretical rigor.
  • De-radicalizing and minimizing these distinctions creates significant theoretical confusion.