Consequences of the Postmodernist Vision: Diversity as the Guiding Value for the Counseling Profession.

One of the characteristic features of intellectual history is that new paradigms occasionally intrude on and disrupt long-standing ideological traditions. Indeed, there are signs within the counseling profession that the rumblings of a new paradigm are beginning to take hold. The primary symptom of this underlying ideological tremor is arguably the multicultural movement, which, because of its vast influence, has justifiably been referred to as the "fourth force" (Pedersen, 1990, p. 93) in counseling. The primary value that animates multiculturalism is an appreciation for diversity (Sue & Sue, 2002). Because the multicultural movement rejects the assumption that there is a singular, correct way of being, the principal ideal of fourth force counseling is that cultural differences should be understood and appreciated, not judged and dismissed. This laudable emphasis on multiplicity emanates from an overarching philosophical system, which has been referred to as postmodernism (Hansen, 2004; Sexton, 1997). The postmodernist movement represents a radical paradigm shift that, unlike modernism, epistemologically permits the coexistence of multiple realities. At a higher level of abstraction, then, the multicultural movement is dependent on postmodernism to intellectually legitimize the value of diversity (D'Andrea, 2000). That is, without the epistemological possibility of multiple, legitimate realities, diversity, as a value, would be nonsensical. Notably, signs of the postmodernist paradigm shift can also be seen in the qualitative research movement (Berg, 2004), which emphasizes multiple, local truths rather than singular, universal truth, and narrative models of counseling (White & Epston, 1990), which operate under the assumption that there are many legitimate ways to story a life. If one uses a conceptual hierarchy metaphor, then, postmodernism is at the highest level of abstraction. The value of diversity emanates from postmodernism and resides underneath it at a more concrete step on the theoretical ladder. The specific practices and movements that are dependent on the value of diversity, such as multiculturalism, qualitative methodologies, and narrative counseling reside at the most concrete, bottom rung. Other professions can also be theoretically mapped with this conceptual hierarchy metaphor. For example, at the highest level of abstraction, physicians rely on medical knowledge. This medical knowledge allows for the value of health. The value of health, in turn, creates specific methods and procedures at the concrete level of practice. To elaborate this analogy, it is certainly desirable for medical knowledge, and the value of health that is derived from it, to trickle down into all realms of medical practice. At the level of clinical medicine, then, physicians apply the value of health to all aspects of the body, not just the cardiovascular system, for example. If medical practitioners only applied medical knowledge to particular bodily systems and neglected others, the effectiveness of applied medicine would be severely compromised. Perhaps there is a lesson for the counseling profession in this medical analogy. Specifically, because medical practice functions optimally when the overarching ideology of medicine flows freely down the conceptual hierarchy into all aspects of practice, the conceptual hierarchies of counseling might also be examined to determine whether all aspects of counseling practice are benefiting from the influence of particular ideological systems. In this regard, because postmodernism, and the value of diversity that emanates from it, has generated useful practices and orientations within particular realms of the counseling profession (e.g., multiculturalism), it is reasonable to presume that other, unaffected areas of the profession might also benefit from a postmodernist infusion. Indeed, it is the thesis of this article that there are at least two areas of the counseling profession, professional identity issues and the helping relationship, that could benefit from an epistemological shift from modernist singularity to postmodernist diversity. …