ABSTRACT
The therapist's understanding of the constructs with which the clients organise their experience of the world runs parallel to its inclusion in a set of professional constructs.
Having already de®ned (see section 1.1.6) what Kelly means by `professional' or `diagnostic constructs', we may add they deal inevitably (and coherently with the theory's epistemological assumption) with constructs, whose peculiarity is to have as elements other constructs, that is, the personal constructs. They `are designed to help the clinician assume professionally useful role relations with his clients' (Kelly, 1991a/1955, p. 335), in the same way as the person's construction of other people's construction processes by means of `role constructs' is the primary basis of role relationships. We have also reviewed the most important professional constructs, limiting ourselves to Kelly's de®nitions. Now we shall reconsider them, by integrating them in our theoretical framework. There, they appear as interacting processes, directed at maintaining an adaptation between the person and the environment (particularly the social environment), and at conserving the organisation of self.
