The contingent nature of psychological intervention. From blind spot to basic resource of psychological science

This work discusses two theses that entail a deep rethinking of both psychological theory and practice. First, it is claimed that General Theory of Psychological Intervention (GTPI) is needed, namely an epistemological framework grounding the modelistic definition of the phenomena of sensemaking comprising professional psychological practice. More specifically, the GTPI has to comprise: a) a theory of the request, namely the model of the semiotic process grounding the social construction and the enactment of the client’s request; b) a theory of the object, namely the model of the class of phenomena assumed as the domain of competence of psychological science; c) a theory of the function, namely the model of the the output that can be carried out by a competent, scientifically guided human action and the value (i.e. the outcome) of such an output for the client; d) a theory of the change, namely the model of mechanisms through which the output is obtained; e) a theory of setting, namely the model of the psychologist-client(s) intersubjective space through which the mechanism of change is triggered and channeled Second, it is claimed the development of GTPI is a matter of idiographic knowledge. As here intended, idiographic knowledge is the knowledge of contingency. This makes the linkage with GTPI clear – indeed, psychological intervention is a practice of knowledge building requiring phenomena and events to be dealt with in terms of contingent, recursive field dynamic.