iples that can be generalized. Rather, the usefulness and the meaningfulness of knowledge shift across time and space. In the postmodern world, the rules and expectations of human behavior will vary in accordance with the social and cultural contexts of the situations.
Third, more than just finders of objective truths, human beings play an active role in creating their own knowledge. Through their subjective interpretations that are derived from a combination of their characters and their experiences, they are creators of their own realities.
Finally, the modernists' focus on the unitary and stable self has given way to the postmodernists' interest in the relational processes forged by individuals with one another. Unlike the modernists' unchanging and integration conception of the self, the postmodern self is characterized by fluidity, multiplicity and a lack of stability. Through communication and narratives, human beings are forever engaged in the process of weaving new stories as a means of interpreting their existence. More than just a passive recounting of their past experiences, the narrative process is a tool for human beings to create new versions of themselves and new perspectives of the same events, as well as interact with others in the larger societal and cultural context.
The impact of postmodernism on psychotherapy is evidenced by the rejection of traditional notions of the self and the perception of psychological problems as residing within the individual. Furthermore, the conception of universal laws that govern standards of behavior has also been questioned. Shifting the focus from the individual to the processes and the social and cultural contexts, psychotherapy in the postmodern world becomes a stimulating forum for human dialogue unconstrained by pre-existing standards of appropriate behavior. Within the therapeutic setting, clients are free to explore different voices, roles and perspectives....