The objective of this paper is to critically examine the problemssurrounding a constructionism of social problems, which is rooted in theconcept of claim-making activity, by returning to its original model. The concept of claim-making analyzes the activities of people whoconstruct social problems, the idea for which was taken from the surge ofminorities who came out in the 1960s and 70s. However, theconstructionism of social problems has an underlying methodologicalproblem, as it ignores its pair concept: that of the closet. Until now, themagnetic field of epistemological power that is able to understand people's activities in advance–what Eve Sedgwick termed "the epistemology ofthe closet" ̶has been overlooked. When researchers use the concept ofclaim-making, they make the activities of people both divisible andcomprehensible, which in turn makes Erving Goffman's "encounter"possible. Yet, at the same time, it is an act of power that involves theremoval of things that are not understandable, and through this,researchers obtain a kind of self-contained pleasure through theirdiscovery of "truth." The key to overcoming such problems inherent in the constructionism ofsocial problems lies within the experiences traditionally discarded as being"incomprehensible." Third World feminist scholar Mari Oka recalled suchexperiences as being a type of "missed encounter." Through conducting aceaseless dialogue with the experience of "missed encounters," which arerecursive in nature like trauma, one can re-imagine/re-create the realityone has safely inhabited until the present. In fact, this may be the onlysignificant task permitted by a constructionism of social problems.