Kızılkaya / Fıkıh Usulünde Sahabe Fetvasının Kaynaklık Değeri Cilt / Volume: • Sayı /Issue: • 2012

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Karagöz / Theory or Reality: Positioning and Searching in the Face of Dominant Theory and Practices of Therapy
Even though there are some participants who emphasize that the issue should be con-
sidered in relation to the paradigm, and approaches related to the culture here should 
be developed to produce knowledge, it can be said that these evaluations go no further 
than being sentiments, and that a different language or new meanings are not pro-
duced. The reason for this is that the dominant understanding of knowledge continues 
to exist in a surrounding fashion both theoretically and practically, and continues to 
impose itself. Nevertheless, it is possible to search the reasons for these deficiencies in 
whether the academicians and scientists who emphasize the production of knowledge 
belonging to culture/world of meaning/tradition of thought are cognizant of this para-
digm’s/thought system’s conception on humans and the way of understanding; and 
whether they have the proficiency to produce this with a new language in the science of 
psychology. Because to understand a person and the culture that that person belongs 
to, it is necessary to be cognizant, in a holistic fashion, of that culture’s history and have 
knowledge about its present and future expectations (Kim & Park, 2006, p. 36). However, 
as Ratner (2003) states, since psychologists/therapists during their education do not 
gather enough knowledge about the history, philosophical tradition and sociology of 
the culture they belong to – because of psychology ideologically leaning towards indi-
vidualism – efforts to produce knowledge about culture continue to fall short.
Participants’ considerations about adolescence, in their evaluations in the frame of 
family problems, being seen as a problem by families themselves are quite significant. 
Because one’s family situation is important in terms of showcasing the influences of 
the knowledge produced about this period. As mentioned before, literature about 
puberty describes people in this age mostly as troubled and prone to pathology. It 
can be claimed that these features are observed in adolescents today in Turkish soci-
ety, and that this supports the knowledge produced about adolescence. However, 
rather than this knowledge being natural features of young individuals, it can be said 
to have emerged as a result of the dominant Western knowledge of psychology being 
transferred to non-Western societies and internalized socially. Because adolescence 
is a notion used to describe the social category emerged from the changes in family 
and society in the West towards the end of 19th century (Demos & Demos, 1969). It 
was first considered scientifically in G. Stanley Hall’s book, Adolescence, published in 
1914, and started to be seen as a universal developmental phase of human life (Arnett,  
2006; Steinberg & Lerner, 2004).
Lesko (2001) considers adolescence, which was historically deemed as a natural and 
universal part of human life since the day it emerged, to be a notion and a way of 
understanding constructed by Western culture, which ignores social interaction and 
is reduced to biological features. Similarly, Lüküslü (2009) also considers this period as 
a social category produced by modernity. Hence this produced/constructed knowl-
edge about puberty and transferred especially via media, popular culture and similar 

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Human and Society
devices cause the emergence of a globally common “adolescence culture” (Schlegel, 
2000, p. 74). Hence families, youth falling in this age group and other members of 
society who are in this culture/way of understanding, inevitably display behaviors 
convenient to it. 
In contrary, Robert Epstein states that if people in this age group were not identified 
as “adolescents,” then the situation could have been different (as cited in Moshman, 
2009). These findings, in a sense, put forward the necessity of a different conceptual-
ization and meaning production about this age group. However, it is significant that 
most of the therapists have not questioned the quality of this world of knowledge. 
It is seen that participants, while evaluating family problems and the reasons for them, 
at some points act on a more traditional/cultural reference. Considerations such as 
weakened parental discipline, the inability to maintain control over children, the dif-
ference between generations rapidly increasing, media having a negative effect on 
the family, especially while evaluating the problems in family-child relationships, are 
traditional/cultural reflexes indicating dissatisfaction over this social change. However, 
a noteworthy point here is that the conservative/traditional point of view that par-
ticipants have while evaluating the family problems and their reasons, is dropped 
in the sake of Western theory and techniques while trying to find solutions to them. 
This situation shows the “dependence on Western knowledge” (Tuna, 2011) in the 
holistic handling of problems and finding solutions is ongoing. In order to remove this 
dependence on psychology and produce a more authentic knowledge base, it stands 
before us as an obligatory situation to do more systematic and holistic research which 
handles issues in the frame of an understanding of knowledge/entity conception 
belonging to a different paradigm/world of meaning.
References / Kaynakça
Arkonaç, S. A. (1999, Eylül). Türkiye’deki terapist söyleminde insan, kültür ve terapi. Uluslararası Liyezon Psi-
kiyatrisi Kongresi’nde sunulan bildiri, İstanbul.
Arkonaç, S. A. (2004). Doğunun ve batının yerelliği: Bireylik bilgisine dair. İstanbul: Alfa Yayınları.
Arnett, J. J. (2006). G. Stanley Hall’s adolescence: Brilliance and Nonsense, History of Psychology, 9 (3), 186-197.
Batur, S. (2003). Türkiye’de psikoloji tarihi yazımı üzerine. Toplum ve Bilim, 98, 255-264.
Demos, J., & Demos, V. (1969). Adoloscence in historical perspective. Journal of Marriage and Family, 31 
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Fişek,G. (1996). Psikoterapide Bağlamsal Duyarlılık ve Batı Kökenli Psikoterapilerin Uygulanması. http://
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