How Did Paradigm Shift Affect The Psychotherapy?

Moderator: Ece Pinar Alparslan

In this study, the historical process of paradigm shifts in the transition from Newtonian physics to quantum physics, which is reflected in psychotherapy schools, is discussed in a theoretical context. The historical process in which sciences are affected by the paradigm shift, the theories of psychotherapy and the case of Mr. Z written by Heinz Kohut are evaluated. The characteristics of single-person and two-person therapies were compared. According to this approach, both theoretical and questionnaire-based comparisons were made of those who received therapy. The purpose of this study is to examine the subjectivity and relativity of human psychology and to look at the progression of the field in the therapy room from determinism (to indeterminism) to possibilities.

Kuhn, the American historian of science and physicist, called different competing scientific approaches paradigms. Kuhn argues that scientific change is not fundamentally cumulative (linear) but revolutionary (in the form of leaps) (Topuk, 2019). On that note, we understand that single- person therapies in psychotherapy are evaluated mechani- cally and that they deal with relationships on the plane of cause and effect. It considers a person’s mental structure, personality patterns, thought processes and behaviors as a fixed and permanent structure. We see that they evaluate this structure on the axis of patient-client, treating and treated based on correcting the pathology (Özakkaş, 2018).

When we first conceptualized the term “intersubjective” in psychoanalytic therapy as an intersubjective process that reflects the interaction between transference and countertransference, between the differently organized subjective worlds of the patient and analyst (Stolorow, Atwood, & Ross, 1978), we can reflect on the impact of the unexplained congruences and divergences between the patient and analyst’s worlds of experience on the therapeutic process. In psychoanalytic treatment, we can consider the observer effect as inherent to the observed. (See also Kohut, 1982, 1984).

Keywords: Paradigm Shift, Physics, Newton, Quantum, Psychotherapy, Intersubjectivity, Relational therapy, Stolorow

1. Social Worker, sag.dnz@gmail.com Psychotherapy Institute BPT Log:858, Turkey.
2. Psychological Counselor, muyesseranar@hotmail.com Psychotherapy Institute BPT Log:874, Turkey.
3. Psychologist, psksena.anlar@gmail.com, Psychotherapy Institute BPT Log No:885 Turkey.
4. Exp. Clinical Psychologist, ecepinaar@gmail.com, ecepinaar@gmail.com, Psychotherapy Institute BPT Log No: 861, Türkey.