ABSTRACT
Much feminist scholarship has influenced and been influenced by the intellectually fashionable theories that have recently been taken up by family therapists. These include "Constructivism", "Post-Modernism", "Deconstruction", and "Social Constructionism", terms that have been used liberally in recent family therapy literature, often without sufficient definition. The "isms" have provided useful critical tools for feminist thinkers to highlight the value base of many different disciplines, including therapy. However, the relationship between feminism and these other "isms" also contains some contradictions and dilemmas for feminist thinkers and practitioners. One of the ways in which the ideas of the radical constructivists— Maturana, von Glaserfeld, and Von Foerster—have been most useful to family therapists is in their scepticism about the concept of truth. Social constructionist approaches also provide a framework for thinking about history, for exploring the evolution of ideas over time and through language, thus challenging their fixed and immutable nature.
