ABSTRACT
Personal construct psychology (PCP) is concerned with elucidating the nature and implications of the anticipatory sense-making (or “construing”) of individual clients. This highly personal focus on individual experiencing makes it, by definition, particularly well-suited to acknowledging and exploring issues of diversity and uniqueness. It can be contrasted with more familiar approaches rooted in questionable assumptions of objectivity, yet in many respects is compatible with emerging developments in cognitive and complexity science. The application of PCP in work with clients is essentially a collaborative venture, in which a growing experience of intersubjectivity – of making sense "with" – can itself encourage exploration and development in new directions. We can also, for example, explore the wider, deeply personal, context of an offence, the origins of unresolved concerns, or the hidden implications which might trip up attempts at facilitating change. The most widely used assessment technique within PCP is the repertory grid. Repertory grids allow an understanding of how individuals construe aspects of their world and enable insight into the operation of their systems of meaning. The chapter provides an overview of their construction, analysis, and applications, leading to concluding comments on the value of PCP and its methods in forensic clinical practice.
