title: Framing failure.
abstract: This essay offers a conceptual framework for thinking about failure--a type of falling short with respect to some normatively characterized activity, task or expectation. It brings this discussion to bear on the complexities of therapeutic failure, noting how attributions of such failure may make controversial assumptions about the normative status of ends and the match between means and ends, as well as the more common location of responsibility in the therapeutic subject. In many cases, failure should be seen as a learning prelude to success, rather than as its exclusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminal Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York 10019, USA. jkleinig@jjay.cuny.edu
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kleinig
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017211:Treatment Failure