ABSTRACT
Although clinical interpretation originated with Freud, the latter's positivist preference for purely observational methods made him ambivalent toward interpretive methods. According to Rubovits-Seitz, the legacy of Freud's positivism still pervades clinical thinking and interferes with progress in investigating and improving interpretive methods. He reviews the paradigm shift in general science from positivism to postpositivism by way of demonstrating the compatibility of interpretive inquiry with a postpositivist approach.
Post-Freudian models of clinical interpretation are evaluated, andclinical methods of interpretation are compared with interpretive approachesin nonclinical fields. A detailed discussion of the neglected problem ofjustifying interpretations incorporates evaluations of specific justifyingprocedures and a case report illustrating applications of such methods. Thework concludes with a consideration of common but avoidable errors in clinicalinterpretation along with remedial strategies for dealing with them.
Following Depth-Psychological Understanding, clinicians may no longer take for granted the interpretive process and the accuracy of their own interpretations. Rubovits-Seitz's scholarly survey marks a major advance in comprehending the methodology of clinical interpretation and in setting forth both the problems and promise of interpretive methods.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |41 pages
Historical Background
part |50 pages
Contemporary Approaches
chapter |22 pages
Methodologic Lag in Some Contemporary Models of Interpretive Inquiry
chapter |26 pages
Some Language-Based Models of Interpretive Methodology
part |76 pages
Nonclinical Comparisons
chapter |52 pages
Some Nonclinical Methods of Inferring Latent Contents
part |114 pages
Justifying Interpretations
part |31 pages
Summary and Conclusions