Solution-Focused Therapy and Subject-Scientific Research into the Personal Conduct of Everyday Living

Abstract

Subject-scientific and solution-focused approaches share several critical concerns with regard to mainstream psychological concepts and therapeutic practices. Also, the alternatives presented have certain obvious similarities, such as 1) respecting subjective experience and everyday practices, 2) accentuating cooperation and 3) articulating possibilities. The articulation of the societal mediatedness of human experience and action has not, however, been an important theme in solution-focused therapy (even though the political dimension of carrying out therapy in a different way has been discussed). Whereas it is justifiable to leave the societal mediation unarticulated in conversations with some clients, it is clear from a subject-scientific perspective that it is necessary for a therapist to seek to comprehend the societal both in her own action and experiences as well as in those of the client. In this article I describe a way of getting a subject-scientific hold of the societal in the everyday living of clients through typical solution-focused practices. I begin by outlining a subject-scientific approach to personality and psychological research. Subject-scientific research is articulated in a way that accentuates the concept of fabric of grounds as a central figure in the architecture of research into subjective experience (see Suorsa, 2011a; Suorsa, Rantanen, Mäenpää & Soini, 2013). This articulation is then conjoined – as a guiding principle – with a description of solution-focused practice. Finally, I will indicate ways of utilizing the knowledge that is being created in solution-focused subject-scientific case study research.