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anneliese's picture

no one is all-seeing

As a neophyte social worker, I can confidently say that I have not been "trained to see all different perceptions." While one might argue that I could accumulate such knowledge given enough time/experience/mentoring/studing, I have my doubts. Indeed, the very notion that an individual, let alone a whole class of individuals, could succeed in seeing all angles of a phenomenon seems to me to contradict the idea of "getting it less wrong," and to imply the attainability of some absolute truth.

That being said, I do agree that (at least for me) one is helped by being exposed to perspectives, or interpretations, or ways of looking, one cannot (or has not) readily access(ed) on one's own. And good therapists do just that, they offer a summary of observations that helps an individual get unstuck...at least, that's been the case for me. And of course one does not have to be a therapist to do this, though being trained as one may increase the frequency with which one does it (as might being a scientist, a philosopher, or anyone inclined to believe in multiple realities and questions her/his own).

The question whether taking the multiplicity of possible world views seriously would "eliminate any need/effort to alter individual worlds" relates to the "culture as disability" issue. Nevertheless, I do believe that individual world views can be disabling, not (or not only) because they are not taken seriously by others, but (also) because they do not foster what you, Paul, have suggested as a working definition for mental health; they discourage personal agency and cast doubt on the possibility of change. Perhaps the problem in such cases is that the individual takes his/her own story too seriously.

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