Theories of Change in Therapeutic Work

Abstract

This article explores how theories of personal change differ from each other according to the assumptions made about the nature of the individual, the relationship between the person and the social, and the nature of causality. Three different concepts of the individual person are distinguished, namely, the autonomous, the expressivist, and the social individual. Each of these implies different relationships between the individual and the social, and different theories of causality. From the perspective of the autonomous individual, change in a person is a rational reordering of individual thought processes. The cause of any personal change is rational effort of the individual. Clinical psychology and psychoanalysis reflect this perspective. From the expressivist perspective, each individual has an inner urge to self-actualize which is the cause of change. Humanistic psychology is based on this view. From the perspective of social individuals, the individual is a cultural being, necessarily dependent on others, who only develops a mind in interaction with others. From this perspective, individual change cannot be separated from change in the groups to which an individual belongs.