• 26th International Congress on PCP Belgrade 2025, ARTICLES, Special Section

The Contemporary Psychotherapeutic Subject: Between Constructivism and Critical Theory

Damjanac, M.

DOI:
10.69995/ARMO8166

Keywords:
Subjectivity, Constructs, Philosophy, Adorno, Baudrillard, Public constructs, Borderline.

Abstract:
This paper examines the contemporary subject of psychotherapy through philosophical, psychoanalytic, and socio-critical lenses. It explores how personal construct psychology (PCP), and constructivism more broadly, can be enriched by engaging with continental critical thinkers such as Theodor Adorno, Jean Baudrillard, and Erich Fromm. Particular attention is given to George Kelly’s original theory and to later developments within PCP. Contrary to some interpretations, Kelly’s model acknowledges both personal agency and the systemic and cultural influences that shape construing. His concepts of superordinate organization, the Modulation and Commonality Corollaries, the freedom –determinism construct, and the non-substantial nature of the self, provide significant resources for understanding constraint, culture, and resistance. These resources are then placed in dialogue with critical theory and with recent PCP analyses of public constructs and borderline personality disorder, including Miletic’s account of the unstable subject generated at specific intersections of personal and public constructions. The paper aims to articulate a more socially attuned and ethically grounded constructivist therapy, one capable of responding to the conditions of contemporary psychological life.