Semantic Polarities and Psychopathologies in the Family: Permitted and Forbidden Stories

'Valeria Ugazio presents a new model of personality and psychopathology by examining four common psychological approaches (phobic, obsessive-compulsive, eating disorders, and depression) in the context of the family. She offers an intersubjective approach to personality, based on a constructionist conception of meanings that focus on the concept of 'semantic polarities' (fear/courage, good/evil, etc). Each client who presents with one of the disorders discussed, the author argues, has grown up in contexts, in most cases families, where certain specific values and meanings predominate. In each family where a member has a different kind of disorder, conversation will revolve around a different set of values. A central tenant of the model is that meaning and its organizations are open systems, and thus susceptible to modification. Based on this theory, the author shows therapists how use semantics with their clients to help overcome symptoms'--