The Society for Descriptive Psychology

The world makes sense, and so do people.      -Peter G. Ossorio, Ph.D.

Descriptive Psychology as Therapy for Therapies

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Presenter Wynn Schwartz, Ph.D.
Date October 1, 2022
Abstract: Peter Ossorio famously said,
“Promise them anything but give them
behavior potential” as a starting point for understanding the relationship of
the formal subject matter of Descriptive Psychology (DP), The Person
Concept, to the theories and practices that constitute psychotherapy.
Although there are therapeutic approaches and ways of talking
characteristic of the DP community, there is no Descriptive Psychology
branded therapy, nor should there be. Instead, DP’s Person Concept
provides a framework for comparative psychotherapy. That said, Peter
Ossorio and Ray Bergner have systematically described policies and
practices –– deliberately compatible with the Person Concept –– that are
paradigmatic examples of how a person, deeply and competently informed
by DP, might conduct non-eclectic psychotherapy grounded in pragmatics
rather than theory.
References

1) Bergner, R. (2006). The many secure knowledge bases of psychotherapy.
American Journal of Psychotherapy, 69, 215-232.
2) Bergner, R.M. (2013). Therapeutic policies: A policy-based approach to psychotherapy. In K.E. Davis, R.M. Bergner, F. Lubuguin, & W. Schwartz, (Eds.), Advances in Descriptive Psychology: Vol.10 (pp. 175-196). Ann Arbor, MI: Descriptive Psychology Press.
3) Ossorio, P.G. (1982/1998/2012). Place. Ann Arbor, MI: Descriptive Psychology Press. (Original work published 1982 as LRI Report No. 30a. Boulder, CO: Linguistic Research Institute.)
4) Ossorio, P.G. (2013). Seminar on Clinical Topics. Collected Works of Peter
G. Ossorio (Vol. VII). Ann Arbor, MI: Descriptive Psychology Press. (Originally published as LRI Report No. 11. Boulder, CO: Linguistic Research Institute).
5) Schwartz, W. (1979). Degradation, Accreditation, and Rites of Passage.
Psychiatry, 42(2), 138-146.
6) Schwartz, W. (2019) Descriptive Psychology and the Person Concept: Essential Attributes of Persons and Behavior. Cambridge, MA and London UK: Academic Press-Elsevier.