Moving beyond the blame game: toward a discursive approach to negotiating conflict within couple relationships.
The concept of discourse is an important tool in negotiating conflict and facilitating conversations within therapy. This article offers a useful framework for negotiating conflict in a couple relationship by highlighting the manner in which individual's expectations are mutually emergent from particular discursive positions. Specific discursive practices and approaches that make more visible the cultural production of conflicts are presented via a case illustration. These practices provide more freedom to couples in relationships to explore conflicts with less totalizing descriptions of the other as blameworthy. In addition, a discursive analysis of conflict invites therapists to be more intentional, reflexive, and socially responsible in their work.
Department of Counseling and School Psychology, San Diego State University, California 92182-1179, USA. staceyls@cox.net
Stacey L
SL
Sinclair
Gerald
G
Monk
D000328:Adult; D000739:Anecdotes as Topic; D000786:Anger; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008388:Marital Therapy / Q000379:methods; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D017008:Negotiating / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D011340:Problem Solving; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012539:Scapegoating