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In his interview, Cushman acknowledges that his ideas regarding the cultural and social history of psychotherapy emerged in part from reading Heidegger's and Gadamer's analyses of historical embeddedness. He also discusses the importance of Michel Foucault's (1970, 1973) notions of disciplinary power but is quick to point out that the exercise of power occurs within a tradition and within a network of moral understandings. So, for Cushman, Gadamer is able to rectify some of Foucault's cynicism. Gadamer's embrace of dialogue assumes that interpretation does not proceed on the basis of a sovereign attitude, such as the proposed metaphysics of psychic structures that guide some classical models of psychoanalytic interpretation.

DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-59096-1_4

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