Psychological Agency Psychology Theory, Practice, and Culture Edited by Roger Frie
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Psychological Psychological Psychological agency PSychology Theory, PracTice, and culTure edited by roger Frie agency is a central psychological “This is a most impressive and original phenomenon that must be accounted for book: an ambitious, far-reaching enquiry in any explanatory framework of human into the psychodynamic conditions of human a action. according to the diverse group of agency. These essays represent an important gency scholars, researchers, and clinicians who contribution to assessing the complex have contributed chapters to this book, relation of agency to the culture of PSYCHOLOGICAL psychological agency is not a fixed entity that contemporary psychoanalysis.” conforms to traditional definitions of free will Anthony elliott, Flinders University, but an affective, embodied, and relational Australia and Visiting Research chair, processing of human experience. agency Open University, UK is dependent on the biological, social, and AGENCY cultural contexts that inform and shape who “in this fine volume, ably edited and we are. yet agency also involves the creation introduced by roger Frie, ten psychologists of meaning and the capacity for imagining and psychoanalysts consider the nature of new and different ways of being and acting agency and autonomy in our post-postmodern and cannot be entirely reduced to biology or age. Without jettisoning valuable insights, culture. This generative potential of agency is they move beyond deconstruction to a more central to the process of psychotherapy and balanced position—one that puts the self in to psychological change and development. its place while still giving it its due. This timely The chapters explore psychological book dovetails with current debates about the agency in theoretical, clinical and embodied and embedded nature of the developmental, and social and cultural person; it should have a major impact on contexts. Psychological agency is presented current theory and practice in both psychology as situated within a web of intersecting and psychoanalysis.” biophysical and cultural contexts in an Louis sass, author of Madness and Frie, edi ongoing interactive and developmental Modernism and The Paradoxes of Delusion process. Persons are seen as not only shaped by but also capable of fashioning “Psychological agency is a must-read. roger T or and refashioning their contexts in new and Frie is to be congratulated for producing a Theory, PracTice, and culTure meaningful ways. The contributors have strikingly insightful and intelligible volume.” all trained in psychology or psychiatry, and George s. howard, Professor of Psychology, many have backgrounds in philosophy; University of notre Dame wherever possible they combine theoretical discussion with clinical case illustration. The MiT Press roger Frie is associate Professor in the Massachusetts institute of Technology Faculty of education at Simon Fraser Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 university. his recent books include http://mitpress.mit.edu understanding experience: Psychotherapy and Postmodernism and Psychotherapy as a human Science. 978-0-262-56231-7 EDITED BY ROGER FRIE Psychological Agency Psychological Agency Theory, Practice, and Culture edited by Roger Frie A Bradford Book The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by SPi Publisher Services, Puducherry, India and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Psychological agency : theory, practice, and culture / [edited by] Roger Frie. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-06267-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-262-56231-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Self. 2. Agent (Philosophy) I. Frie, Roger, 1965– BF697.P755 2008 155.2—dc22 2008017556 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Preface vii Introduction: The Situated Nature of Psychological Agency 1 Roger Frie I Theoretical Contexts 33 1 The Agency of the Self and the Brain’s Illusions 35 Arnold Modell 2 Becoming Agents: Hegel, Nietzsche, and Psychoanalysis 51 Elliot L. Jurist 3 Understanding Persons as Relational Agents: The Philosophy of John Macmurray and Its Implications for Psychology 73 Jeff Sugarman II Clinical and Developmental Contexts 95 4 Perspectival Selves and Agents: Agency within Sociality 97 Jack Martin 5 Agency and Its Clinical Phenomenology 117 Jill Gentile 6 Agency as Fluid Process: Clinical and Theoretical Considerations 137 Pascal Sauvayre 7 Dimensions of Agency and the Process of Coparticipant Inquiry 155 John Fiscalini vi Contents III Social and Cultural Contexts 175 8 Psychological Agency: A Necessarily Human Concept 177 Adelbert H. Jenkins 9 Sexual Agency in Women: Beyond Romance 201 Linda Pollock 10 Navigating Cultural Contexts: Agency and Biculturalism 223 Roger Frie Contributors 241 Index 243 Preface This book is premised on the belief that agency is a central psychological phenomenon that must be accounted for in any explanatory framework of human action. Broadly speaking, psychological agency refers to the human capacity for refl ective action, and is based on the potential to imagine and create new ways of being and acting in the world. This generative potential is only possible within the collective meanings and social and material rela- tions that shape our lives. It is essential, in my view, that agency be seen as a situated psychological phenomenon. Psychological agency is not a fi xed entity that conforms to traditional defi nitions of free will. It is an active process of meaning con- struction that is dependent on the self-interpretation of individuals and is grounded in biology, society, and culture. As such, agency can never be divorced from the contexts in which it exists, yet neither can it be wholly reduced to these contexts. Agency is based on the embodied, affective poten- tial for refl ective understanding and, as such, is central to the process of psy- chotherapy and psychological change and development. Agency is a lived phenomenon that is evidenced in everyday experience and in those therapy clients who seek help for problems in living. The ques- tion of agency also relates to how we choose to live our lives and the respon- sibility we have for the decisions we make. As such, agency is both a psychological concept with direct clinical implications and a central philo- sophical issue pertaining to the ethics of choice. Because it is such a multidi- mensional concept, I believe that agency can only truly be appreciated and understood from a multidisciplinary perspective. In developing this book, I therefore invited a diverse group of scholars, researchers, and clinicians to provide discussions of agency that expand our appreciation of the complex- ity of the agential process. The contributors are all trained in either psychol- ogy or psychiatry, and many have academic philosophical backgrounds that they bring to bear in their explication of agency. viii Preface I have divided the book into three separate sections: theoretical con- texts, clinical and developmental contexts, and social and cultural con- texts. Each chapter, to a greater or lesser extent, touches on all three of these areas. I also asked contributors, where ever possible, to combine theoretical discussion with clinical case illustrations. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate that agency cannot be fully appreciated from any single disciplinary outlook, but, especially when considering its clinical implications, must be considered from multiple perspectives. As a group, the contributors approach and defi ne agency as a central topic in clinical and theoretical psychology, yet their discussions also draw on the fi elds of philosophy and neuroscience and to a lesser extent, on sociology and anthropology. An underlying theme throughout the book is the utility of a contemporary psychodynamic perspective for understanding the affec- tive dynamics at work in the emergence, development, and experience of agency. This book developed over a number of years and with the help, both direct and indirect, of many people. I would like to thank fi rst and foremost my students and clients. It is through the process of mutual refl ection on the nature of psychological agency, whether in a pedagogical or clinical setting, that I have learned to appreciate both its importance and its complexity. Working in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and the Department of Psychology at Long Island University, as well as at various doctoral and postdoctoral institutes, has enabled me to understand and appreciate the interconnections between theory, practice, and research, and to draw on each of these in formulating my approach to agency. In addition, my earlier academic training in continental philosophy in Cam- bridge and Berlin has been enormously helpful to my elaboration of agency as a “metatheoretical” subject. The majority of my published work to date has been geared towards developing the interconnections between the dis- ciplines of psychology,