Excerpt: Phenomenology was a European philosophy that was a parallel development to American pragmatism. It will be argued that personal construct psychology may fruitfully be seen as a phenomenological approach to the person and that its methods for investigating the experience of individuals mirror and indeed extend phenomenology’s reach. It will also be contended that personal construct psychology is enriched by the insights of other phenomenologists, in particular, those of Merleau-Ponty (1962/1945).

Excerpt: Kelly was aware that philosophical speculation is inescapable for any scientific investigation. In fact, he chose to state his underlying assumptions right at the beginning, thus uncovering the philosophical roots of his theoretical position. He did that by coining two expressions that, consistent with his theoretical formulation, are shaped like the contrasting poles of a discrimination, a construct: accumulative fragmentalism versus constructive alternativism. Without entering the arena of the debate in the specialized field of the philosophy of science, Kelly suggested a revolutionary alternative to the prevailing notions about the nature of scientific knowledge, and pursued its implications at the levels of theory construction and of || its clinical and psychotherapeutic application. On the other hand, his theoretical approach can be, and has been, applied to all the areas subjected to psychological inquiry. What he did in the 1950s was so much ahead of its time that his work is only now at the cutting edge of contemporary psychology and psychotherapy.

Excerpt: In 1955, two heavy volumes containing 1218 pages of The Psychology of Personal Constructs landed on the desks of psychologists. Kelly’s ‘brief introduction’ in the previous chapter is, in relation to the two volumes, indeed brief. The reception of this revolutionary work was mixed. We discuss some of the difficulties experienced by reviewers and subsequent readers later in this chapter. But, first, a word about the man who created this work.

Excerpt: Who can say what nature is? Is it what now exists about us, including all the tiny hidden things that wait so patiently to be discovered? Or is it the vista of all that is destined to occur, whether tomorrow or in some distant eon of time? Or is nature infinitely more varied than this, the myriad trains of events that might ensue if we were to be so bold, ingenious, and irreverent as to take a hand in its management? Personal construct theory is a notion about how man may launch out from a position of admitted ignorance, and how he may aspire from one day to the next to transcend his own dogmatisms. It is, then, a theory of man’s personal inquiry – a psychology of human quest. It does not say what has been or will be found, but proposes rather how we might go about looking for it.

Excerpt: This chapter discusses some of the ways in which contemporary personal construct therapists have extended Kelly’s ideas to address a broader range of problems and generate an expanding repertory of interventions, while still exemplifying a recognizable therapeutic stance. We will therefore begin by considering the intellectual zeitgeist that has informed many of the developments in personal construct therapy, and note the major themes that define the stance of the therapist, before reviewing a representative sampling of recent developments in this clinical perspective.