Constructivism - is a metaperspective, which implies the following: 1) human experience involves continuous activity; 2) human activity is largely devoted to streamlining processes that are the essence of meaning-making - organizational modeling of experience, which is essentially emotional, implicit and categorical (depending on contrasts); 3) organization of personal activity is largely a self-referential or recursive process, making body a support and focus of the experience and expertise by encouraging a deep phenomenological sense of self or identity card; 4) self-organizing capacity and formation of meaning are heavily influenced by social and symbolic processes; people exist in a living network of relationships, each of them being mediated by language and system of symbols (Eisendrath & Hall, 2008).
Every human life reflects the principles of dynamic dialectical development; complex flows between significant stresses (contrasts) are reflected in the patterns and cycles of experience, which can lead to episodes of disorder (disorganization) and in some circumstances – to reorganization (transformation) of the key patterns of activity, including the formation of meaning, and the relationship with oneself and society (Pritchard & Woollard, 2010).
Biological self-regulation arises from physical experiences. Early in life we struggle to separate ourselves from those who take care of us - individuate in a coherent and differentiated identity. The body and its boundaries are axis to form experiences. Like our relationship with our emotions, our relationship with our body can become confusing and painful. And at a more abstract level, our relationship with self is the most complex. All psychotherapy is, in fact, psychotherapy of self - the act of help in self-organization.
The theory not only provides a basis for interesting developments in the field of psychology, but is also successfully used as a theoretical bridge from behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and object relations to humanism and existentialism as the one providing the necessary concepts and foundations in them.
References
Eisendrath, P. Y., & Hall, J. A. (2008). Jung's Self Psychology: A Constructivist Perspective. New York: Guilford Press.
Pritchard, A. M., & Woollard, J. (2010). Psychology for the Classroom: The Social Context. Oxon: Taylor & Francis.
