Reading against the lines: resisting foreclosure in therapy discourse

In this article, it is noted that poststructural ideas can be useful tools in fostering reflexivity and creativity for clinicians. By examining the process of meaning construction, clinicians can detach from repetitive interpretations of therapy discourse that lead to conversational closure. Four strategies for guiding a reading of family therapy interaction are presented: incitement to discourse, deconstruction, normativity, and the cultural grid of intelligibility. These strategies are used to describe examples of marital therapy discourse. By learning to read therapy as discourse, clinicians may critically examine how meaning is constructed and use that awareness to foster therapeutic conversations.