Abstract
This chapter unpacks narrative therapy’s “de-centered and influential” stance. The de-centered and influential description is a response to the apparent ethical dilemma of not wanting to impose normative judgments in therapeutic conversations while simultaneously recognizing the impossibility of participating neutrally. Michael White, widely considered a founder of narrative therapy, highlights how certain practices of curiosity provide a way past this apparent philosophical dilemma. In this stance, narrative therapists take responsibility for their participation through the intentional use of questions that help deconstruct internalized stories and re-author alternative ones that clients identify as preferable. The author uses an extensive practice example to illustrate how de-centered and influential curiosity allows him to maintain his preferred narrative therapy stance.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bird, J. (2000). The heart’s narrative: Therapy and navigating life’s contradictions. Auckland, NZ: Edge Press.
Bird, J. (2008). Constructing narratives to make a difference. Auckland, NZ: Edge Press.
Burr, V. (2015). Social constructionism. London: Routledge.
Combs, G., & Freedman, J. (2012). Narrative, poststructuralism, and social justice. Current practices in narrative therapy. The Counseling Psychologist, 40(7), 1033–1060.
Dickerson, V. C. (2014). The advance of poststructuralism and its influence on family therapy. Family Process, 53(3), 401–414.
Epston, D. (1999). Co-research: The making of an alternative knowledge: Narrative therapy and community work: A conference collection. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon.
Foucault, M., Lagrange, J., Burchell, G., & Davidson, A. I. (2008). Psychiatric power: Lectures at the college de france, 1973–1974. New York: Picador.
Foucault, M., Martin, L. H., Gutman, H., & Hutton, P. H. (1988). Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Gaddis, S. (2004). Re-positioning traditional research: Centring clients' accounts in the construction of professional therapy knowledges. International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work, 2004(2), 1.
Gaddis, S. R., Kotzé, E., & Hulme, T. (2014). Peach trees grow in the spaces between people: Counselling practices in the territory of violence. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 35(3), 353–363.
Hall, S. (2001). Foucault: Power, knowledge and discourse. Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader, 72, 81.
Madigan, S., & Law, I. (1998). Praxis: Situating discourse, feminism and politics in narrative therapies. Vancouver: Yaletown Family Therapy.
Monk, G., Winslade, J., Crocket, K., & Epston, D. (1997). Narrative therapy in practice: The archaeology of hope. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Morgan, A. (2000). What is narrative therapy. An easy-to-read introduction. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.
Morgan, A. (2006). The position of the therapist in working with children and their families. In M. White & A. Morgan (Eds.), Narrative therapy with children and their families. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Rabinow, P. (1991). The Foucault reader. London: Penguin.
White, M. (1995). The narrative perspective in therapy: Reauthoring lives, interviews and essays. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.
White, M. (1997). Narratives of therapists’ lives. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.
White, M. (2005). Workshop notes. Retrieved from www.dulwichcentre.com.au
White, M. (2007). Maps of narrative practice. New York: WW Norton & Company.
White, M. (2011). Narrative practice: Continuing the conversations. New York: WW Norton & Company.
White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 American Family Therapy Academy
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gaddis, S. (2016). Poststructural Inquiry: Narrative Therapy’s De-Centered and Influential Stance. In: Dickerson, V. (eds) Poststructural and Narrative Thinking in Family Therapy. AFTA SpringerBriefs in Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31490-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31490-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31488-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31490-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)