Abstract

CASTANON, Gustavo Arja. Constructivism and cognitive therapy: epistemological subjects. Rev. bras.ter. cogn. [online]. 2005, vol.1, n.2, pp. 31-42. ISSN 1808-5687.

This article investigates an allegation usually done by constructivists therapists about the supposed objectivist character of Cognitive Therapy. Accepting a constructivism definition as a position that defends an active posture of the subject in the construction of its reality representations, a brief summary of the current proliferation of self-named constructivists positions in Psychology is presented, positions that many times assume theories that contradict the original spirit of this philosophical tradition. Then, this work demonstrates the difference between epistemological affiliation of Behavioral Therapy, logical positivist, and Cognitive Therapy, critical rationalist. After that, it explains the constructivist character of Critical Rationalism, finally concluding that Cognitive Therapy is essentially constructivist and that the root of some allegations of Constructivist Therapy is the epistemological and ontological confusion in which it is involved. Divided in several interpretations of constructivism, it does not get to decide between constructivism and relativism, or between realism and idealism.

Keywords : Cognitive therapy; Constructivist therapy; Constructivism.