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If Wittgenstein and Lyotard could talk with Jack and Jill: towards postmodern family therapy
Author(s) -
Shawver Lois
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6427
pISSN - 0163-4445
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6427.00182
Subject(s) - postmodernism , metanarrative , conversation , philosophy , criticism , psychoanalysis , tying , order (exchange) , language game , postmodern theatre , epistemology , sociology , literature , narrative , psychology , linguistics , art , computer science , finance , economics , operating system
This essay uses a literary device to create a transcript of an imagined conversation between postmodern philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jean‐François Lyotard with two family therapy trainees, Jack and Jill, in order to explain key postmodern concepts as they might relate to family therapy. These include Lyotard's concepts of a differend, paralogy, metanarrative, and Wittgenstein's concepts of a language game, language game confusions and family resemblance. Other postmodern theorists and therapists make cameo appearances in the conversation, tying their own ideas to the topics under discussion. The essay also addresses the criticism of postmodernism raised by Barbara Held.