A HERMENEUTIC CRITIQUE OF COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY: RICOEUR AND ROGERS

Counseling psychology contains concepts that are not readily amenable to traditional psychological research. Concepts such as the self, empathy and growth are not able to be defined exclusively in operational terms; nor can they be limited to observable behavioral entities. Ricoeur's hermeneutics was seen as providing a methodology that would add to our understanding of counseling psychology.;This study seeks to validate a hermeneutic methodology in counseling psychology. The validation is established through the encounter of Ricoeur's hermeneutics with Rogerian client-centered therapy. An encounter of hermeneutics with counseling psychology is valid to the extent that it provides an analytic (or reading) and a dialectic (or reworking) of counseling psychology that together add to our understanding of counseling psychology. Thus, in this study, a hermeneutic critique of Rogerian client-centered therapy is used in order to validate the claim that hermeneutics has a proper function in counseling psychology.;Rogerian client-centered therapy was used as the counseling approach in this study because of its seminal position in counseling psychology. In addition it was noted that Rogers claimed a phenomenological influence in his theoretical formulations, thus giving some initial commonality with the phenomenological heritage in hermeneutics. At the same time it was noted that Rogers' theoretical formulations have been criticized as not being truly phenomenological and is requiring reformulation.;The analytic and dialectic provided by the encounter of Ricoeur with Rogers was found to validate the involvement of hermeneutic methodology in counseling psychology. At the same time as validating a new methodology, this study has offered an internally consistent, systematic theoretical structure for Rogerian client-centered therapy. This in itself was seen as an important contribution to counseling psychology. Despite some of the criticisms that were made of Rogers' theoretical formulations, this study was undertaken with a deep appreciation of the therapeutic insights of Rogers and of his contribution to counseling psychology and to my experience as a therapist. The reformulated theoretical structure that is offered as a result of the hermeneutic critique is, I hope, still representative of the debt owed to Rogers.;The application of hermeneutics as a methodology in counseling psychology can be seen to be justified historically and from recent research. Historically, hermeneutics has been associated with Dilthey's search for a methodology for the Geisteswissenschaften. Ricoeur's hermeneutics has historical ties to Husserl's phenomenology and Heidegger's existentialism also. Both of these traditions have also been seen as offering methodological approaches for the human sciences. Recently, Ricoeur himself has used his hermeneutics in an encounter with Freudian psychoanalysis. Others have also applied hermeneutic methods of interpretation in experimental psychology and psychosomatic medicine. To date there has been no application of hermeneutic methodology directly to counseling psychology that is known to this writer.;The hermeneutic critique of the Rogerian themes of subjectivity,empathy and growth indicated that hermeneutics offers an appropriate methodology for understanding intentional, goal-directed behavior and for understanding the interactive, interpretative nature of empathy. In this way it can be seen to offer a research approach that can be applied in counseling psychology to those areas that are less amenable to the traditional empirical approaches. It was also noted that a hermeneutic methodology offered a research approach that would admit political and ethical investigation in counseling psychology. Implications for counseling practice and training were also drawn from the hermeneutic critique that was pursued in this study.