The answer to this depends on how we treat the word truth. Many authors assign truth an absolute value; they treat it as “Truth” with a capital T. However, if we choose for a moment to consider Dr. Marsha Linehan’s assumption that “there is no absolute truth,” then truth may be taken to be another word for knowing which may be another word for awareness. And just because awareness (a.k.a. truth) is a process unfolding in time and subject to circumstance, it cannot be assigned an absolute character.
From my perspective when someone says something is “true” they are simply telling me what they know; what has shown up, persistent, in awareness. I can honor their experience without being pushed around by it just because I’m also aware of my own awareness, subject to time and circumstance. I believe this is why Marsha said that she as a clinician was just as much a “victim of the laws of learning” as her clients. Her bits and pieces of knowing, her “awarenesses,” were no more absolute than anyone else’s. I agree with her.
free open mind 