You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The word hermeneutic is derived from the Greek word hermeneuein meaning “to interpret.” The Greek word, in turn, is considered to be derived from the name of the Greek god Hermes, who was the god of “speech, writing, and traffic,”1 and the mythical messenger between the gods and humanity. Hermes traveled in two directions with messages: from the gods to humanity and back again. In this essay, I will discuss these two directions and their implications. My purposes are to show some of the underpinnings of interpretation and to suggest how these assumptions affect the patient-therapist relationship.
Hermeneutics, as it has been consistently understood in philosophical and literary circles, is the art of interpretation. This entails attempting to understand, in a precise and analytical fashion, what myths, poems, novels and so forth mean. One's preconceived definition of meaning may set the parameters of interpretation, and I shall deal with this question later on. But to begin with, it is sufficient to understand by meaning the quality of things, concepts, or actions that makes them familiar, with the result that they are easily discussed or logically elaborated. Thus, the classical hermeneutic process is one of revelation, of bringing the unfamiliar into the context of the familiar.
When we are presented with a myth or a patient's fantasy, it may strike us as having a sort of consistency but simultaneously its “true meaning” is elusive. In an attempt to resolve this conflict, we may try to interpret the material into concepts or actions with which we are familiar, and these foreign meanings are carried over into a familiar context by the vehicle(s) of the hermeneutic method(s) we choose. For example, in biblical exegesis,