Recently, Japanese schools are increasingly employing clinical psychologists as school counselors. This increase is generally understood as reflecting a characteristic trend of present society that emphasizes psychological reasoning in everyday life. On the other hand, however, clinical psychologists have not been accepted in hospitals as successfully as in schools. The purpose of this paper is to search for the key factor behind the increase in clinical psychologists in changes of clinical psychology itself, especially its “knowledge” and “scientific principles.”
Forty-five textbooks published in post-war Japan were analyzed. It was found that a remarkable change of scientific principles in clinical psychology occurred in the 1970s. Most of the textbooks published before 1970 emphasized the importance of objectivity. However, therapists could not completely exclude subjectivity from their practices because of the face-to-face relationship with their clients. This dilemma was resolved through the introduction of a new perspective in clinical psychology, which simultaneously emphasizes both subjectivity and objectivity. Clinical psychologists applying this perspective believed that therapists could reach universal objectivity through subjectivity. After the 1970s, this belief came to prevail in clinical psychology and to support the practice of therapists.
Generally speaking, the change of principles has led clinical psychologists to construct more “soft facts, ” which Latour, the French anthropologist of science, defined as facts with less resources for persuasion. This transformation to “soft facts” from “hard facts” may be a contributing factor to the increase of clinical psychologists in schools. First, by constructing “soft facts” instead of “hard facts, ” clinical psychologists became able to conduct counseling at school without strictly controlling the conditions for it. Second, by emphasis “soft facts” rather than “hard facts, ” the practice of therapists becomes more easily approved by schoolteachers, who have the same orientation. From this point, some differences between schools and hospitals are considered.
