Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) and the person-centered approach (PCA): a discourse, with a special focus on the gender paradigm

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the possible contributions of the Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) to the exploration of the person-centered approach (PCA) hence relating Michel Foucault to Carl Rogers. Different paths lead us to similar forms of understanding concerning meaning, discourses, subjective experience, personal power, self-actualization, epimeleia heautou (care of the self), parrhesia and eventually, history as ethics and process. Discourse analysis which focuses on language constitutes a privileged field for this consideration. More precisely, FDA proposes a crucial methodological tool to meet and evaluate possible constructions of PCA as a therapeutic approach in theory and practice. In association with them, gender construction is durable and always present. Therefore, we use a research study having as reference the gender construction by person-centered therapists in order to implement a concrete apprehension of the methodological significance of FDA considering PCA in theory and practice.