JCNT - May 2025 Release - Full Release - Flipbook - Page 17
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novelty, we must search for outliers that are disqualified, unstable, or difficult to
imagine. We can see an example of the absent but illicit with my client John, who
believed that he "won't get the girl." Using the absent but implicit, we explored
John's value of connection and, later, at social discourses that fed the problem,
such as happiness requiring partnership. John's relational abilities were
exceptions that assisted in creating a counterplot. As our conversations expanded
to include the absent but illicit, we moved to divergent contexts from the
anchoring concept of the story, discussing John's desire for polyamory and his
need for solo time. These newly named desires could not have been predicted by
the conceptual frame of the problem as it was first described.
The idea of reaching beyond referenced identities connects me to Deleuze, who
asks us to consider a dynamic process with the virtual, rather than allowing the
constraints of a single, dominant actualization or organization. Deleuze's
