Constructing Psychotherapists’ Social Roles

We try to argue that the assumption of a dialogical perspective, such as the one S. Tavares, M.M. Gonçalves e J. Salgado base their discussion about the psychotherapist’s social role upon, implies: from one end, the reference to the cultural and organizational context which has anticipated the meeting between the therapist and the client and which in addition leads each other fantasies to be used to explain each other roles; from the other end, the reference to the institutional and environmental context where their experience is situated. From this angle, the reciprocal positioning that takes place in the therapeutic relationship is not a one-to-one positioning. It is presented as positioning between complex group systems with specific cultural frameworks of reference. Not all of these codes are useful. Their potentialities and their risks cannot be defined in the abstract, apart from the social and intentional contexts implemented by them. In this case even, the context becomes an indispensable mental reference for the orientation of the intervention, both in training and in therapy – suggesting and/or enabling certain connections between demand, objectives, practices, tools, rather than others.