A conversation with Jean Guichard: Reflexivity in action

In this chapter, I respond to two aspects of Jean Guichard's scholarly work in vocational guidance and vocational psychology as they relate to the counseling for work and relationship perspective. The first is Guichard's challenge to consider whether there is a larger purpose for these fields beyond helping people adapt. A dual model of work inclusive of both market or paid work and unpaid care work that addresses a larger purpose is proposed. A dual model of work may contribute to a discourse and to the construction of lives less dominated by market values. It also has adaptive potential. The second is Guichard's notion of go between concepts, specifically the go between concepts of identity frame and subjective identity form. The concept of identity frame leads to a revision of the notion of context in the counseling for work and relationship perspective. The concept of identity frame, on the one hand, highlights the ways in which social locations and associated social identities are ever-present contexts of experience above and beyond work and relationship contexts. The concept of subjective identity form, on the other hand, suggests another kind of identity that can be thought of as transactional. A transactional identity is, to some extent, volitional, based on action, relevant to contexts of work and relationship, and can be contrasted to more deeply embedded and less volitional social identities.