Abstract
This essay explores Michael P. Nichols' criticism of certain aspects of the family systems therapeutic model, especially his concern that it takes insufficient account of the self in the family system. Building on Nichols' argument, and noting the paradigm shift occurring among family therapists from systems to story thinking, the essay sets forth a story model of counseling having four primary postulates: (a) possibilities for change are inherent in every story told; (b) characters in stories are always more than their ascribed social roles; (c) systems or dyadic and triadic relationships are a property of stories; and (d) the self is both a constituent of stories and exists independently of them. The importance of autobiographical studies to mediate pastoral theology's theoretical interest in theological anthropology and the story model of pastoral counseling is noted but not explored in depth.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Abbott, P. (1987). States of perfect freedom: Autobiography and American political thought. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1987.
Andrews, W. L. (1993). African American autobiography: A collection of critical essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Ashley, K. (Ed.) (1994). Autobiography and postmodernism. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press.
Barbour, J. D. (1994). Versions of deconversion: Autobiography and the loss of faith. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.
Bjorklund, D. (1998). Interpreting the self: Two hundred years of American autobiography, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Buckton, O. L. (1998). Secret selves: Confession and same-sex desire in Victorian autobiography. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
Capps, D. (1990). Reframing: A new method in pastoral care, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Capps, (1995). The child's song: The religious abuse of children. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
de Shazer, S. (1991). Putting difference to work. New York: W. W. Norton.
Eakin, P. J. (1985). Fictions in autobiography: Studies in the art of self-invention. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Eakin, P. J. (1992). Touching the world: Reference in autobiography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Evasdaughter, E. N. (1996). Catholic girlhood narratives: The Church and self-denial. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Folkenflik, R. (Ed.) (1993). The culture of autobiography: Constructions of self-representation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Freedman, J., & Combs, G. (1996). Narrative therapy: The social construction of preferred realities. New York: W. W. Norton.
Glück, L. (1992). The Wild Iris. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press.
Goodwin, A. (1993). The right to remain silent. Pastoral Psychology 41(6), 359–376.
Heffernan, J. A. W. (1993). Museum of words: The poetics of ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Kris, E. (1952). Psychoanalytic explorations in art. New York: Schocken Books.
Lessa, W. A., & Vogt, E. Z. (Eds.). (1958). Readings in comparative religion: An anthropological approach. Evanston, IL: Row & Peterson.
McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R., & Shellenberger, S. (1999). Genograms: Assessment and Intervention (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton.
Nichols, M. P. (1987). The self in the system: Expanding the limits of family therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Olney, J. (Ed.) (1980). Autobiography: Essays theoretical and critical. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Olney, J. (1972). Metaphors of self: The meaning of autobiography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Parry, A., & Doan, R. E. (1994). Story re-visions: Narrative therapy in the postmodern world. New York: The Guilford Press.
Roberts, J. (1994). Tales and transformations: Stories in families and family therapy. New York: W. W. Norton.
Smith, S. (1987). A poetics of women's autobiography: Marginality and the fictions of self-representation. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Wurmser, L. (1997). The shame about existing: A comment about the analysis of “moral” masochism. In M. R. Lansky & A. P. Morrison (Eds.). The widening scope of shame (pp. 367–382). Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Capps, D. Situating System and Giving Self Its Due: A Story-Based Counseling Model. Pastoral Psychology 48, 293–313 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022099112043
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022099112043