PSYCHOTHERAPY AS A HERMENEUTICAL EXPERIENCE

Epistemological convictions are at the seat of the daily practice of psychotherapy. Three main currents have formed the basis both for the justification and discovery of clinical knowledge: empiricism-positivism, phenomenology and the existential viewpoints, and hermeneutics. This article attempts to outline the hermeneutic component of psychotherapy, a set of attitudes which we believe should co-exist with, but not replace the other two mentioned. From the hermeneutical stance, any new experience, is constructed or revealed, rather than given: any new meaning, is both contained and hidden in what is already there. Hermeneutic reconstruction is related to the process and limitations of the narrative in psychotherapy.