ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines therapists who fear that they are being placed in a position of becoming co-opted by the legal system, and therefore fear becoming stigmatized as social controllers. They suggest that therapists who make promises that they know how to communicate, or how to control, risk not only becoming dangerous to the clients but also being manipulated by agencies of social control. Irreverence varies greatly from being a revolutionary or from fighting oppression in the family and/or institution. It is a position reflective of a state of mind of the therapist that frees him by allowing him to take action without falling victim to the illusion of control. Irreverence is to never accept one logical level of a position but, changing from one level to another. Instead of accepting any fixed descriptions, irreverence posits eroding certainty. The position of systemic irreverence allows the therapist to juxtapose ideas that might at first look contradictory.
