A Constitutionalist Account of Resistance

Abstract

Clearly, for the narrative therapist the constituted subject can only be a partial description of the person. But such descriptions have considerable experiential thickness. Oscar’s sense of himself as ‘a failure’, Petra’s sense of herself as ‘a stupid romantic’, and Nobisa’s personal sense of shame, for example, are all experienced as somehow central to their lives, evidencing an experiential depth and solidity that should be taken seriously. Nevertheless, it is evident that in practice narrative therapists embrace a more active vision of the human being than this constitutionalist picture makes available. The question of theory, however, is more complex, and it is by no means straightforward to assert that Foucault or White offer coherent theoretical grounds for such an active view.