ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the main principles of social constructionism and how they relate to people are presented. These ideas include the notions of postmodernism, language, and storying. Postmodernism relates to how people view the concept of truth, wherein truth is not absolute but is socially constructed through language. This chapter pays particular attention to how people develop certain understandings of themselves based on their relationships with the various social discourses about who people should be. The information is presented as it relates to a hypothetical case of an immigrant Asian-American female who is coming to therapy because of interpersonal issues that have been labeled by others as codependency.
