Knowing and Not-Knowing

In this chapter the possibilities and limitations of different kinds of knowing are addressed. Three kinds of knowledge and seven varieties of not-knowing are illustrated by unpacking a moment in individual psychotherapy. The inescapability of philosophical assumptions, the relationship of knowledge to power, off-the-peg knowledge such as diagnoses, and lineal and circular descriptions are all explored. The vexed question of the apparent disappearance of power in Gregory Bateson’s circularity is argued, from a critical realist perspective, to be an error caused by shallow versions of realism. Power, instead, is seen as frequently hidden from observation and rediscovered in Bhaskar’s depth realism, itself joined to social constructionism.