Published: October 2022

Keywords:
Social constructionism, systemic theory, working in teams, working with families, montage, Benjamin, Jameson, critical evaluation, critical psychotherapy.

Kostoula Maki

Kostoula Maki was born in Ioannina. She is working as a social psychologist in the Prevention Centre “ODYSSEAS” (Agrinion). She has studied Pedagogy (University of Patras), Psychology (University of Birmingham) and was trained for three years as an art therapist (Art and Psychotherapy Centre). She has an MA in Critical Theory and a Ph.D in Discourse Analysis (University of Ioannina). Academic articles, critical and literary texts and various papers have been published in magazines, newspapers and conference proceedings. She has published four books. Her last poetry book Yellow Wolf Lightful was published in June 2022.

Abstract

The article investigates the functioning of systemic constructionist practices in psychotherapy with groups and families as a process that develops polyphonically and also as an "episodic" panoramic editing. The concept of collage and montage is used in the way that Walter Benjamin defined them. At the same time, questions regarding the author's first experiences in the psychology/psychotherapy field are presented. These questions remain under configuration, forming each time different theoretical and practical dilemmas. Furthermore, mnemonic episodes from psychotherapeutic groups are presented that were influential for the writer of this article in terms of the critical processes of psychotherapeutic practices with groups and families.