DECONSTRUCTION AND THERAPY REVISITED: INCLUDING THE EXCLUDED by ALAN PARRY, PhD. FAMILY THERAPY PROGRAM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY CALGARY, ALBERTA ‘T2N 4N1 CANADA PRESENTED AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONVENTION BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS AUGUST 20-24, 1999 RUNNING HEAD: DECONSTRUCTION ... REVISITEDDeconstruction and Therapy Revisited Abstract Jacques Derrida’s term deconstruction has achieved widespread usage amongst psychotherapists. Much of this derives from the influence of Michael White who has interpreted it in a Foucauldian way consistent with his practice of externalization. Problems are seen as oppressors to be excluded. A return to a Derridean understanding, buttressed by attention to the work of Foucault, Lacan and Kristeva, is proposed in which narratives embraced by families to the exclusion of others return as symptoms which eventually hijack the prevailing family story. Therapy consists in giving excluded stories a voice through encouraging the acknowledgement of the abjection all share so that the”marginalized other” in all its forms may be included once again.DECONSTRUCTION AND THERAPY REVISITED: INCLUDING THE EXCLUDED by Alan Parry, PhD. “When | use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, It means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master-—that’s all.” Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass Man's desire is the desire of the Other. Hegel, Phenomenology of the Spirit Prologue In 1982 Jacques Derrida wrote an important essay entitled Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy. His essay harked back to a famous essay by Immanuel Kant entitled Of a Newly Raised Superior Tone in Philosophy (1796). Kant’s essay had a satiric edge to it while Derrida’s was a call to the other to “Come!” In that the very word evokes the closing words of the Apocalypse of John of Patmos, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Derrida dares us to be open to a revelation. It is a strange sort of revelation, however, one that reveals nothing because it is a call to welcome everything that is nothing because it is excluded. This constitutes a revelation,