FROM OBJECTIVIST INVALIDATION TO PERSONAL DENIAL

THE CLINICAL POTENTIAL OF AN ASSERTIVE EPISTEMOLOGY

Abstract

In this article, an approach to interpersonal relationships in contexts of emotional abuse will be proposed, which will be characterized as “predatory” from a systemic perspective that takes an ecological metaphor as a starting point. In the first place, the so-called “predatory relational pattern” will be delimited, which is deployed in diverse interactional schemes. Then, the distinction between the epistemological modalities that sustain this pattern (arrogant epistemology and complacent epistemology) will be established, showing its differences with an assertive epistemology from which said pattern can be questioned and deconstructed. Likewise, a set of epistemological combinations that can be articulated in a dyadic relation will be exhibited and some examples of the so-called “cognitive, emotional and pragmatic distortions” will be offered, resulting in maps that validate the predatory social ecosystem. Finally, some ideas about the clinical-therapeutic potential that the exercise of epistemological reflection supposes for the interdisciplinary field of mental health will be presented.