anomie - social instability, alienation and a sense of purposelessness cause by a steady erosion of standards and values. apodictic truth - an imaginary concept of truth in which it is supposed that we know something with absolute certainty. To be an apodictic truth there must be no possibility of mistake commodification - the subordination of public and private realms to the logic of capitalism. In other words, things (e.g., friendship, women) are valued for their commercial value. With commodification aspects of our lives that are culturally conditioned take on the mythology of being "natural." critical reading - to read in a way that looks for fallacies and defects in the writing. It is to be contrasted with "reading generously." This distinction between generous and critical reading is analogous to a parallel distinction between generous and critical listening. critical theory - Although the term is sometimes used more broadly, in most contexts it refers to the school of thought represented by the "Frankfurt School," which is a school of thought that combines psychoanalysis and Marxism. deconstruction - A term that, for all practical purposes, was introduced in the literature by Derrida. It means to undermine the conceptual order imposed by a concept that has captivated our imaginations and ways of seeing things. (See Shawver, 1996) see "deconstruction quilt" discourse - sometimes this term refers to any kind of talk, but often it refers to particular unified ways of talking that represents a kind of conversation across texts from different but related communities. discourse analysis - inquiry that leads us to reflect critically and creatively on our common ways of life. dominant discourse - A Foucaultian term that indicates a certain way thinking and talking is the most common and most accepted way. Often it implies an institutionalized way of thinking about things. generous listening (or reading) - Shawver's term for one of the things we do to promote paralogy. It involves accepting the other person's key terms in their distinctive senses. Generous listening does not require us to accept the other person's conclusions, but it does require us to be generous in their distinctive use of words. It is to be distinguished from critical listening. The concept and the history of this term is detailed in Shawver,1998, Postmodernizing the Unconscious. hegemony - a culture or institution is a hegemony if it is so dominant that other cultures and institutions do not have a voice. ideology - A set of ideas, doctrines, or beliefs that form the basis of an political or economic system and inspire individuals, groups, classes or cultures. Sometimes, ideology is understood as creating ideas for certain inspired groups to use as weapons against other groups.
Lebenswelt - Husserl's word for the lived world of institutional and mundane experience. It is the world created by people although they are unaware of doing so. logical positivism - Twentieth-century philosophical movement that is known for its determination to police assertive statements in order to reject as meaningless non-empirical statements that can not be verified. This means that logical positivism rejects all statements of metaphysics, theology, ethics and aesthetics as nonsense. The philosophy is represented by the work of Bertrand Russell, (believe in metanarratives whereas postmoderns are incredulous of metanarratives. Postmoderns, in this sense of the term, are eclectic and gather their beliefs from a variety of sources while treating the resulting compilation as tentative. believe in metanarratives whereas postmoderns are incredulous of metanarratives. Postmoderns, in this sense of the term, are eclectic and gather their beliefs from a variety of sources while treating the resulting compilation as tentative. modern - Also called "modernist." In the context of a postmodern vocabulary, the "modern" does not mean "contemporary." In fact, the "modern" or "modernism" is seen as out-of-date. The "modern" is understood to have emerged during the 18th century Enlightenment when philosphers were challenging superstitions (which often included religion) of premodern beliefs. They replaced faith in superstition with faith that science and objectivity could build us a better world. Moderns prefer objective and factual language. paralogy - a stimulating conversation that generates ideas without necessarily resulting in consensus. These new ideas emerge, in large part, because paralogy allows us to define the rules of language terms locally and provisionally. That is, in a local conversation we might say, "I am using the word in this sense." (Of course, there are many terms that will not be defined locally even in a paralogical conversation.) paramodern - A term introduced by Glenn Larner. It means to identify the position in which the author speaks but holds his position lightly, knowing that it can be deconstructed. postmodern - Alas, there are a two similar but critically different meanings of the term. Most people want to say, however, that postmodernism originated in the middle of the twentieth century and was a rejection of the "modern" or "modernism."

The most prominent one, however, is probably Jean-Francois Lyotard's definition of postmodernism as an incredulity towards meta-narratives. This means the postmodern is one who is skeptical of theories that speak in grand generalities and that universalize their conclusions. In discussion forums this may mean that the quest is not for consensus around some grand statement of the truth but for paralogy. This kind of postmodernism tends to be utopian and visionary, imagining that postmodernism can bring us better lives.

On the other hand, postmodern sometimes means disillusionment with the standard way of understanding things. In this case, the therapist tries to offer a more correct (or helpful?) way of thinking and these helpful ways tend to be counter-intuitive for mainstream cultural thinking. In this case, therapists often talk about the dominant or oppressive narrative and offer, in its stead, a preferred narrative. Some disillusioned postmoderns, however, are nostalgic, feeling even that the loss of the metanarrative devastates mental health and that we should fight postmodernism in order to to make it a better world. premodern - The premodern is what came before modernism. The premodern is one who has unquestioning faith in a revealed truth, a religious truth, a superstitious truth or a truth passed along by word of mouth.
The Enlightenment - A philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions which it called "superstition." The Enlightenment philosophy encouraged the American and French revolutionary overthrow of aristocracies and replaced it with the dream of science liberating us from the scourge of one human's inhumanity to another. Postmodernism is disillusioned with the power of the Enlightenment dream to bring us to this utopia and points, among other things, to the science behind the Nazi slaughter of the Jews in World War II.