I chose postmodernism as the pre-arching paradigm that encapsulates my thoughts on the human condition. After much thought and research on what ideas I most related with, I found that postmodern thought was the most applicable.
Postmodernism is an "umbrella" term used to describe not only a conceptual system after the modern era, but a mode of thought that questions whether there are any universal truths, particularly in the social sciences, in which psychology reigns supreme.
I identify the modern era as being a time period when people were largely thought to be controlled by external or internal forces, the former being their childhood or environment, the latter being their biological makeup. I think that when looking through the lense of a postmodernist perspective knowledge is seen as constructed and contingent on the cultural meaning that is applied to words. This means that descriptions of phenonema, such as describing someone as "mad" or "bad" is culturally specific and may be interpreted differently in a different context. This paradigm is powerful for me as it is subversive, meaning it challenges dominant paradigms, but it also promotes freedom from constraint.
I also find it fascinating how language can be construed so differently, depending on the individual's background and the meaning attributed to the words in the culture the individual is embedded in.
