Phenomenological-psychological epistemology

narrative identity and psychotherapy

Abstract

The present article aims to discuss the paradigms of modern thought in psychology and the possibility of a new understanding, crossing the horizons of Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical hermeneutics. Paradigms are like models for a determined scientific practice at a given historical moment. Based on the movement of a new paradigm for psychology, going beyond epistemologies backed by natural sciences, the narrative identity is seen as an epistemological basis, a path in psychology from perspective of psychotherapy. The modern thinking, with its multiple contributions to the sciences, can become an obsolete worldview, in front of the complexity unveiled by the new paradigmatic thinking in contemporary times. In this perspective, psychology is invited to broaden its horizons towards new paths, capable to responding to the challenges imposed by the current conceptions of subjectivity. It is in this line of reasoning that the issue of narrative identity can be a possibility for different psychotherapeutic approaches.