ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author, Lynn Hoffman, looks into postmodernism, poststructuralism, critical theory, deconstructionism, the discourse theory of Michel Foucault, hermeneutics and narrative theory, social construction theory, and feminist positions on postmodern theories. She shares her own explanation of these concepts from the point of view of these theories' relevance to family therapy. In general, both postmodernism and poststructuralism are anti-positivist in nature, attacking the assumptions of objectivity that characterize the Western world view and especially the claims of modern science. But poststructural thinkers have gone further and challenged the twentieth-century idea that hidden structures abide within human groups and their productions. Postmodern and poststructural thinking has allowed us to look afresh at all prized or sacred writings and to "deconstruct" them. Feminist critics have been given wings by the French deconstructionist movement, and feminist family therapists have profited by it too. Political feminists have often chosen critical theory as a base or marched under the banner of deconstructionism.
