Narrative Therapy

[dr_mabeuse]

This is interesting: A form of psychotherapy that treats your life as a story and seeks to cure you by changing the narrative line.

All human experience is basically meaningless. We give it meaning by adapting our life-experiences to fit various stories we've learned from different sources in the culture. So, you might give your life the story of a failure, or a big success. You might be living the story of the Abused Wife or the Bumbling Husband, the Has-Been High School Athlete or the Never Lucky-In-Love Loser, but the way you see yourself is the result of some story you've chosen to interpret your life's experience. In Narrative Therapy you find out what that story is and then you set out to change it.

They use it a lot for problem solving, apparently. You treat you and your problem as a character and a plot. This enables you to see the problem objectively (supposedly) and make better use of what resources you have to find a solution.

I like this because I'm a big believer in the stories-as-organizers-of-experience model, and I know how one's life situation can influence the fiction one writes, so it makes a nice kind of symmetry if the reverse is true as well.

That's the news from the insanity front.

 

[hmmnmm]

Maybe some of us allowed someone else to write our stories, and distracted us with so many subplots we forgot all about it. We just have to take the pen away from whoever.
Wait a minute. That doesn't quite work.
Fascinating idea.
What's really fun is to tell a true incident about yourself, in third person (past tense).

 

[Guest]

Positive imagery? The power of positive thinking?

It seems to be a bit of that, yes? But this time, a complete story line is added, with characters and plot?

I like it. That works especially well for us creative-type-writer people.

 

[sweetness6280]

This therapy is catching on. I read a little about it last year when I was doing a paper.

I found it fascinating, because we tend to re-write our stories in our memories.

I'm still reading The Mindful Brain. It is changing how I view my story, both past and present.

 

[Vermilion]

This is interesting: A form of psychotherapy that treats your life as a story and seeks to cure you by changing the narrative line.

All human experience is basically meaningless. We give it meaning by adapting our life-experiences to fit various stories we've learned from different sources in the culture. So, you might give your life the story of a failure, or a big success. You might be living the story of the Abused Wife or the Bumbling Husband, the Has-Been High School Athlete or the Never Lucky-In-Love Loser, but the way you see yourself is the result of some story you've chosen to interpret your life's experience. In Narrative Therapy you find out what that story is and then you set out to change it.

They use it a lot for problem solving, apparently. You treat you and your problem as a character and a plot. This enables you to see the problem objectively (supposedly) and make better use of what resources you have to find a solution.

I like this because I'm a big believer in the stories-as-organizers-of-experience model, and I know how one's life situation can influence the fiction one writes, so it makes a nice kind of symmetry if the reverse is true as well.

That's the news from the insanity front.

Oh, I've done this...

An ex who kept preying on my mind... I wrote a story where a woman bumps into her ex ten years after he broke her heart. Anyway, he pursues her, they shag, she regrets it and he is broken hearted. OK, that's a very basic outline which doesn;t do the real story any favours, but it purged that ex from my thoughts beautifully... now I perceive him as being a tool, like my character was...

x
V

ps- s'what u meant, right?

 

[Nirvanadragones]

I've heard about it, and I found it interesting, for basically the same reasons that have already been mentioned.

I'm cautious though . . . firstly, because when the story is changed from what it was, to what is chosen, it's still a "plot" that's being followed. If it has been written before, (whether it is positive, or not) there isn't much space for adaptation or change. I think part of the reason the adult experience is so unique, is that we have the ability (whether we use it or not) to take any given situation, and adapt and change it, to suit our needs in that moment.

The problem fits in with the typical "feel good" movie. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, work through some issues, and then they all live happily ever after. End of the movie. But we don't see the sequel when next week he cheats on her, and she gains 100 pounds, and he looses his job, and she has a nervous breakdown. And with each of those situations, their "plot" has to be adjusted.

I do like the idea of being able to take your life situation and see it as "fiction" with the possibility of different endings. It also gives that little bit of distance we might need to move from being absolutely involved, to being a little more objective. I just don't think it will work for the majority of people out there. Especially those who are already not acceptant of their reality.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I know that I've written some of my stories as self-therapy, in the sense of self-medicating...

 

[rgraham666]

I've learned a fair bit about myself through my writing.

Why do you think so many of my BDSM tales are first person?

 

[Guest]

I've learned a fair bit about myself through my writing.

Why do you think so many of my BDSM tales are first person?

All of my stories are true.

 

[damppanties]

This is interesting: A form of psychotherapy that treats your life as a story and seeks to cure you by changing the narrative line.

All human experience is basically meaningless. We give it meaning by adapting our life-experiences to fit various stories we've learned from different sources in the culture. So, you might give your life the story of a failure, or a big success. You might be living the story of the Abused Wife or the Bumbling Husband, the Has-Been High School Athlete or the Never Lucky-In-Love Loser, but the way you see yourself is the result of some story you've chosen to interpret your life's experience. In Narrative Therapy you find out what that story is and then you set out to change it.

They use it a lot for problem solving, apparently. You treat you and your problem as a character and a plot. This enables you to see the problem objectively (supposedly) and make better use of what resources you have to find a solution.

I like this because I'm a big believer in the stories-as-organizers-of-experience model, and I know how one's life situation can influence the fiction one writes, so it makes a nice kind of symmetry if the reverse is true as well.

That's the news from the insanity front.

This therapy is catching on. I read a little about it last year when I was doing a paper.

I found it fascinating, because we tend to re-write our stories in our memories.

I'm still reading The Mindful Brain. It is changing how I view my story, both past and present.

This is fascinating and ties in to a part of the course I'm doing. Can I have links to any sources that you have on this issue, please?

 

[slyc_willie]

I know that I've written some of my stories as self-therapy, in the sense of self-medicating...

I've done that, as well. It works, for the most part, I've noticed.

I think what Zoot was getting at is how we perceive our own life histories as a story, and by changing that story, we can change how we see ourselves.

My story is something like, "I-know-I'm-not-what-my-parents-wanted-me-to-be-but-I'm-happy-with-myself."

 

[sweetness6280]

I've done that, as well. It works, for the most part, I've noticed.

I think what Zoot was getting at is how we perceive our own life histories as a story, and by changing that story, we can change how we see ourselves.

My story is something like, "I-know-I'm-not-what-my-parents-wanted-me-to-be-but-I'm-happy-with-myself."

That is the point. It's not just about catharsis or acceptance. It's the chance to see the possiblity for change, if change is desired. By writing one's own story, then stepping back to analyze it, that distance that Vana mentioned is created. This is helpful whether the goal is self-awareness/acceptance or creating a catalyst for change.

LOL, of course the lit analyst in me loves this.

 

[ExoMani]

This is interesting: A form of psychotherapy that treats your life as a story and seeks to cure you by changing the narrative line.

All human experience is basically meaningless. We give it meaning by adapting our life-experiences to fit various stories we've learned from different sources in the culture. So, you might give your life the story of a failure, or a big success. You might be living the story of the Abused Wife or the Bumbling Husband, the Has-Been High School Athlete or the Never Lucky-In-Love Loser, but the way you see yourself is the result of some story you've chosen to interpret your life's experience. In Narrative Therapy you find out what that story is and then you set out to change it.

They use it a lot for problem solving, apparently. You treat you and your problem as a character and a plot. This enables you to see the problem objectively (supposedly) and make better use of what resources you have to find a solution.

I like this because I'm a big believer in the stories-as-organizers-of-experience model, and I know how one's life situation can influence the fiction one writes, so it makes a nice kind of symmetry if the reverse is true as well.

That's the news from the insanity front.

Interesting post. I'm going to have to do some research on this subject.

Thanks.

 

[neonlyte]

Most therapy is a form of working through your own life, Mabs account takes the treatment one step further. It kinda loops back to the 'storyteller' thread, I'm sure most writers ground their storytelling in personal experience, factual or fantasy... it's still personal. I'm certain many of my short stories (except Bonking for Britain ) are reflections on my personal life and desires. As Stella says, it's self-therapy and all the better for it both in the telling and in the writing, but it has me wondering... can a story only tell the past?

 

[Liar]

The narrative is a good problem solver. I've used it at work when I was the staff manager, and had to untangle a nasty conflict between two employees. I asked them both, individually, "If this was a novel and you were the author, how would you give it a happy ending?" They gave me pretty much the same answer.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

This is fascinating and ties in to a part of the course I'm doing. Can I have links to any sources that you have on this issue, please?

I just heard about it in a conversation and googled. The Wikipedia entry gives you some references.

I've been interested in what writing does to my life for a while. It does change it. Tolstoy or someone referred to writing as a kind of prolonged prayer or meditation, and insofar as meditation can change your life, I think writing can too. Focusing on a specific idea or emotion for 4 or 6 hours at a stretch and days at a time does things to you. I don't know if that's how narrative therapy works, but that kind of writing can be powerful stuff.

The act of processing experience for the significance it contains - which is actually what we do when we write - is more or less the essence of intelligence. It's the recognition of meaning in the midst of randomness. Sustaining that for hours a day changes the way you see things.