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| Narrative Therapy: The Social Construction of Preferred Realities
Hardcover
Edition: 1
Author: Jill Freedman, Gene Combs
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Release Date: 1996-03
ISBN-10: 0393702073
ISBN-13: 9780393702071
List Price: $39.00
Average Customer Rating:
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ISBN-10: 0393700984
ISBN-13: 9780393700985
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ISBN-13: 9780393705164
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ISBN-13: 9780495115885
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
This book describes the clinical application of the growing body of ideas and practices that has come to be known as narrative therapy. The primary focus is on the ways of working that have arisen among therapists who, inspired by the pioneering efforts of Michael White and David Epston, have organized their thinking around two metaphors: narrative and social construction. The authors are as concerned with attitude as with technique. Believing that a solid grounding in the worldview from which narrative practices spring is essential, they begin with an overview of the historical, philosophical, and ideological aspects of the narrative/social constructionist perspective. This involves also telling the story of their own development as particular therapists in a particular part of the world during a particular historical period. The heart of the book is devoted to specific clinical practices: locating problems in their sociocultural context, opening space for alternative stories, developing stories, questioning, reflecting, thickening plots, and spreading the news. Each practice is described, located in relation to the ideas and attitudes that support it, and illustrated with clinical examples. In addition to conversations with people illustrating particular practices, three transcripts are included to show the subtle use of questions to develop alternative, preferred realities. Drawing upon the thinking of White and Epston, Karl Tomm, and others, the final chapter looks at the ethics of relationship that guide narrative therapists in the use of specific practices.
Sadly, great truthiness
| Customer Rating: | Reviewer Micheal Kaan states that, "Despite its claims to miraculous and rapid cures, it turns out from research that NT is--surprise--as effective as any other kind of therapy."
Let's review for a moment the effectiveness of other kinds of therapy. In 1951, for example, Powers and Witmer studied 650 high-risk boys. Half were counseled and sent to YMCA. After 5 years, all of the therapists felt most boys had "benefited substantially." Moreover, the boys agreed and said the counseling had given them insight and kept them out of trouble. Yet, a 30-year follow up study in 1981 found the "helped" boys committed more serious crimes and were more affected by alcoholism, mental illness such as depression, and lower job satisfaction than those left alone. For another example, research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1967 followed 301 people who had been arrested for "public drunkenness" in San Diego and were randomly assigned to three groups: no treatment, referral to professional counseling, or Alcoholics Anonymous and the group with the greatest continued drinking (in fact, more than before treatment) and the most re-arrests were the individuals sentenced to AA while the most successful at staying out of jail were those in the control group receiving no treatment at all. Finally, Elliot (1998) reviewed 500 violence prevention programs and all but three (receiving the least funding) failed to address any known risk factors and likely only made things worse.
For at least four centuries, what is today called Murphy's Law was known as Sod's Law. Sod's Law stated that if anything can be done wrong that some sod (or in these cases, therapist) will do it wrong. Alas, Sod's Law (or Murphy's) has become its own worst victim in a post-modern age where we get to simply blame bad luck rather than poor efforts (which actually came out of a religion created by a Larry Niven science fiction story - a useful comparison to the popular religion of this field). This text is supposed to be introducing us to techniques to address this very problem (which it starts out doing). Unfortunately, the very social contructionism that should be utilized to uncover the ways in which individuals participate in creating their perceived but inaccurate social reality is here only watered down into a sappy, vague, and unsupported composition making the potential solution only another victim to itself that is further tainted by personal bias and arrogance that (like all of the other mistaken but popular therapies) can be easily mistaken as professionally academic. In avoiding traditional "medical model" language simply because it's common overuse has more often pathologized patients (rather than only editing out objectifying speech), this field is throwing the baby out with the bathwater and ends up being no better or worse (again, as Micheal Kaan points out). In the same way, one can easily explain the positive reviews of this book by simply looking under Colberianism for the social constructionist concept of truthiness.
My review is certainly clouded (the book deserves at least two stars for being average for books on the subject) by my overwhelming disappointment in the entire therapy industry and the Narrative Movement in particular (potentially the silver bullet for conflict resolution). For instance, people often confuse the story of when Moses came to the King of Egypt with ten plagues and dire warnings as an attempt to provide a narrative for the King to change but God repeats again and again that He had a seemingly unfair freezing of such change in the King. This is because the narrative was really to provide an externalization of sin for the Jews by a literal use of the third person... helping them accept how they had become alienated from their own values, hopes, and commitments by being part of an socio-political "mob" for a self-destructive reality. This greater articulation through externalizing language and relevant audiences provided not only the classic narrative "breaking of the ice" but also a step-by-step action plan that built not only a subjective reference to understanding but also an objective neutral one to allow an unfreezing of inaccurate political rightness and slow refreezing of a healthier measurable worldview. Too often such references for the need of specific measurable objectivity seem to be wholly refused by modern narrative practitioners where they end up only being their own worst enemies.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Creation Science is not a "science" specifically due to its refusal to subject itself to objective review. Yet, we too often provide just such privilege to "real" scientists. Just as no creation "scientist" will ever yell at another in his/her field, "Your overuse of poorly defined jargon and under use of randomized trials or comparison groups invalidates any conclusion" - the Narrative Movement (or is that Ministry) seems sadly just another cult of mutual admiration. One must maintain the use of neutral language and never be persuaded by the "dark side" of popular "new age" postmodern relativism. Without enough supporting evidence from a position of objective neutrality, this otherwise well written text becomes just another emperor with no clothes. And, the prevalent need to view males negatively is another overwhelmingly disappointing pointer to personal agendas that leaves the resulting politicized advice hypocritical and counterproductive. I say, "Boo!" |
Extremely helpful...
| Customer Rating: | | As a counseling psychology student, I found this book to be incredibly useful in understanding the foundations of Narrative Therapy. This book offers a lot in the ways of theoretical orientation and basic narrative counseling skills. A must read for counselors who wish to expand their techniques. |
Great Resource for Beginning Counselors!
| Customer Rating: | | This is a really great resource for learning about the theoretical assumptions behind narrative therapy and how to start practicing narrative techniques. Freedman and Combs do an excellent job of bringing the material to the reader in a collaborative, non-pedantic way - perfect for the post-modern, narrative viewpoint that they are conveying. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning ways of connecting in a more personal and real way with their clients' life stories and personalities. Great book! |
I Like it
| Customer Rating: | | Please ignore the non-review of July 11, and dig deep enough to see David Epston's thoughts about the book. |
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