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General Consensus


Postmodern Perspectives . . .

General Consensus 

There needs to be more about general consensus in postmodern discourse. From a postmodern perspective, that denounces the idea of objectivity, I have come to use the concept of general consensus as a way to acknowledge a kind of pseudo structure that binds our individual relative existences together. For me, explicitly acknowledging the existence of constructed structure helps me get my head around the idea that there is no inherent structure. 

This is the conceptualization I use to position myself as a professional therapist in a therapeutic setting. I work with people to unpack and explore their expectations from all levels of social existence; in pursuit of a more preferable consensus understanding of one’s self and the environment around them. 

Sometimes I think about the relationship between the terms consensus and congruence. From a strictly definitive standpoint they are synonymous, but I use applied meaning to differentiate. 

For me, congruence is a state of positive affirmation of the inner self and the environment around. There is a value judgment that the elements of being are correct and as they should be. Consensus is the acknowledgment and agreement that the self and environment are as they are, with no applied value judgment for the self or environment. One can exist in a state of consensus agreement on the way things are and also be in a stare of incongruence with how the “should” be. 

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