The Therapeutic Relationship as a Reorganizing Field: A Dialogical-Process Account of Therapeutic Change
Author
Faudot, Theodor Søltoft
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-06-12
Abstract
This thesis proposes an integrative framework for how psychotherapy alleviates suffering by reconceiving the therapeutic relationship as a reorganizing field. It addresses a gap between robust evidence that the relationship predicts outcomes and the lack of a clear account of what the relationship is and how it works. The study is theory-building and abductive, proceeding in four phases: (1) phenomena detection that fixes the explanandum in trans-theoretical regularities of the relationship literature; (2) theory generation that advances field-dependence as the organizing idea; (3) theory development through analogical modeling drawing on dialogism, phenomenology, and enactivism; and (4) theory appraisal testing internal coherence and determinate content and weighing the account against the free-energy principle from cognitive science, concluding in its favor within stated limits. The relationship is specified as the joint of the carried and the constituted: a person carries a manner—precarious habits formed in prior relational fields—while the here-and-now configuration constitutes what therapeutic elements are and mean. Change is theorized as reorganization: when a coordination cannot be assimilated, it opens an affective and semiotic re-formation that becomes durable as the carried manner settles around the sense assimilated across the trajectory of therapy. Contributions include a regional ontology of the therapeutic process, a criterion distinguishing psychotherapy from neighboring practices, and a testable research program, with implications for clinical practice, training, and research. The account is scoped to the relationship’s intersubjective constitution rather than the client’s inner life or material realization, and its conclusions remain open to revision.
Dette speciale tilbyder en samlet, forklarende ramme for, hvordan psykoterapi lindrer lidelse, ved at forstå den terapeutiske relation som et reorganiserende felt. Udgangspunktet er et forklaringsgab mellem robuste fund om relationens betydning for behandlingsresultater og fraværet af en klar teori om, hvad relationen er, og hvordan den virker. Undersøgelsen er teoribyggende og følger en abduktiv metode i fire faser: (1) fænomendetektion, der fastlægger forklaringsmålet i tværteoretiske regulariteter i litteraturen om den terapeutiske relation; (2) teorigenerering, der argumenterer for den organiserende idé om feltafhængighed; (3) teoriudvikling via analogisk modellering med strukturelle greb fra dialogik, fænomenologi og enaktivisme; og (4) teorivurdering af indre sammenhæng og begrebslig bestemthet samt afvejning mod fri-energi-princippet fra kognitiv videnskab, hvilket samlet taler for rammen inden for angivne grænser. Specialet specificerer relationen som sammenføjningen af det bårne og det konstituerede: Personen bærer en måde – prekære vaner dannet i relationelle fortider – mens den aktuelle konfiguration konstituerer, hvad elementerne terapeutisk er og betyder. Forandring forstås som reorganisering: Når en koordination ikke kan assimileres, åbnes der for en affektiv og semiotisk omdannelse, som bliver varig, efterhånden som den bårne måde sætter sig omkring den mening, der assimileres gennem terapiforløbet. Bidragene omfatter en regional ontologi for den terapeutiske proces, et kriterium til at skelne psykoterapi fra nærliggende praksisser og et testbart forskningsprogram samt implikationer for klinik, uddannelse og forskning. Rammen afgrænses til relationens intersubjektive konstitution snarere end klientens indre liv eller dens materielle realisering, og konklusionerne holdes åbne for revision.
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