Turning to Narrative

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Schiff
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
The Self ◽  
Narrative Psychology ◽  
Narrative Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Insight Into

Chapter 3 of A New Narrative for Psychology introduces a theoretical framework for a narrative perspective that inspires creative approaches to studying psychological problems. It begins with a history of the “narrative turn” in psychology and outlines the current divisions. Since the 1980s, psychological research calling itself “narrative” has blossomed. However, at the moment, narrative psychology is fragmented, with no clear definition of what narrative is or does. This chapter addresses the definitional problems posed by the current use of the narrative concept in psychology, arguing that narrative psychology is not just a theory or a method but, rather, must encompass both. It reorients narrative psychology to meaning making, the study of how and why persons enact aspects of their lives in time and space. Narrative offers researchers insight into the fundamental psychological problems of how persons interpret the self and experience.

A New Narrative for Psychology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Schiff
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Scientific Psychology ◽  
Narrative Psychology ◽  
Psychological Understanding ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Narrative Functions

A New Narrative for Psychology is a far-reaching book that seeks to reorient how scholars and laypersons study and think about persons and the goals of psychological understanding. The book provides a challenging critique of contemporary variable-centered, statistical methods, revealing what these approaches to psychological research leave unexplored; it presents readers with a cutting-edge, narrative, approach for getting at the thorny problem of meaning making in human lives. For readers unfamiliar with narrative psychology, this is an excellent first text, which considers the history of narrative psychology and its place in contemporary psychology. The book goes well beyond the basics, however. A New Narrative for Psychology offers a fresh and innovative theoretical perspective on narrative as an active interpretive process that is implicated in most aspects of everyday life, and the ways in which narrative functions to make present and real subjective and inter-subjective experiences. Theory is grounded in vivid illustrations of what can be learned from the intensive study of how persons, in time and space, narrate their experiences, selves, social relationships, and the world. A New Narrative for Psychology reintroduces narrative psychology as a credible, trustworthy, and useful perspective for considering the hows and whys of human meaning making and argues for the necessity of narrative as a central, and complementary, perspective in scientific psychology. It is an invitation to a conversation about the critical questions of psychology, the most effective strategies for approaching them, and the future of discipline.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Schiff
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Narrative Psychology ◽  
Productive Force ◽  
Human Psychology ◽  
Narrative Perspective ◽  
Synthetic View ◽  
Insight Into

The concluding chapter of A New Narrative for Psychology, reflects on the place of the narrative perspective in the discipline as a whole. It argues that although the methods of narrative psychology may not be wholly distinct from qualitative or mixed methods, the narrative perspective does present an integrated, theoretical, and methodological approach to the study of human meaning making and is specially suited, distinctly credible, to this pursuit. The chapter addresses the growing debate on unity in psychology in which some scholars have proposed unifying psychology through overarching theoretical structures or by imposing methodological discipline. By virtue of the way that narrative can deal with complexity, it can be a productive force for a more synthetic view of human psychology. In this regard, a narrative perspective can provide insight into human experience in a way that no other perspective can.

Monkey on My Back. An Autoethnographic Narrative of a Therapeutic Experience

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Wiesner
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
The Self ◽  
Symbolic Language ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Therapeutic Experience ◽  
Postmodern Philosophy ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Global Uncertainty

With a conscious attempt to contribute to contemporary discussions in mad/trans/queer/monster studies, the monograph approaches complex postmodern theories and contextualizes them from an autoethnographic methodological perspective. As the self-explanatory subtitle reads, the book introduces several topics as revelatory fields for the author’s self-exploration at the moment of an intense epistemological and ontological crisis. Reflexively written, it does not solely focus on a personal experience, as it also aims at bridging the gap between the individual and the collective in times of global uncertainty. There are no solid outcomes defined; nevertheless, the narrative points to a certain—more fluid—way out. Through introducing alternative ways of hermeneutics and meaning-making, the book offers a synthesis of postmodern philosophy and therapy, evolutionary astrology as a symbolic language, embodied inquiry, and Buddhist thought that together represent a critical attempt to challenge the pathologizing discursive practices of modern disciplines during the neoliberal capitalist era.

Simple Hardworking Christian Folks, or the Self-Image of Contemporary Belarusian Kolkhozniks

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-279
Author(s):  
Anna Engelking
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Field Research ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Building Process ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Christian Nation ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
Insight Into

This article concerns the anthropological inquiry about collective identity of contemporary Belarusian kolkhozniks. The author had conducted her field research (1993-2011) in both west and east Belarus. Source materials consist of about seven hundred conversations with individuals overwhelmingly more than sixty years of age. By analyzing and interpreting their narrative, the author traced the implicit values, norms, rules, basic semiotic dichotomies, and distinctive attributes in search of an unbiased insight into the content, structure, and building process of collective identity of the subjects under study. She concludes that the dichotomies, constitutive for collective identity of kolkhozniks—“peasant” versus “lord,” “peasant” versus “Jew,” and “Christian” versus “Jew”—result in the self-definition of muzhik-kolkhoznik as a simple, hard-working man “from here” belonging to a “Christian nation.” Neither the nation nor motherland, state nor language, belongs to the principal values of this group, which are “working the land” and “faith in God.” As a result of the petrifaction of the old model of the serfdom manor by the Soviet kolkhoz system, in a Belarusian village we presently encounter one of the last European residuals of premodern mentality and social identity. The image of Belarusian kolkhozniks’ collective identity has little to do with the popular category of Homo sovieticus and with the common stereotype of the kolkhoz. The human subject of the author’s anthropological reflection shows up as a person dealing amazingly well with extremely difficult living conditions and the modern, vivid personification of the archaic Homo religiosus.

Towards a Historical Definition of the Haskalah

2001 ◽  
pp. 184-220
Author(s):  
Shmuel Feiner
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Revolutionary Movement ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Alive Today ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter studies the long historiographic tradition in search of a definition of the Haskalah. It suggests reducing the historical parameters of the Jewish Enlightenment so that it can be recognized as a trend in which modernizing intellectuals aspired to transform Jewish society. Despite the obvious diversity and dispersion of the Haskalah, and the difficulty in defining it precisely, the chapter enumerates a number of essential criteria, elaborating on the self-consciousness of the maskilim and paying special attention to their militant rhetoric and awareness of belonging to an avant-garde, redemptive, and revolutionary movement. It also sketches a portrait of the typical maskil, surveys the history of the movement and its various centres, and elucidates the dualistic nature of its ideology, explaining its links to the processes of Jewish modernization and secularization. Ultimately, the Haskalah was the intellectual option for modernization that triggered the Jewish Kulturkampf which, still alive today — especially in Israel — separates modernists and anti-modernists, Orthodox and secular Jews.

scholarly journals Shifts in Traditional Methods of Coping Among Elderly Bedouin Men

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Khaled Al-Said ◽  
Orna Braun-Lewensohn ◽  
Ephrat Huss
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Cultural Transition ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Traditional Population

Elderly Bedouin men in southern Israel are a unique traditional population living in remote unrecognized villages and experiencing rapid social transition, in addition to deep poverty and political tension. In this study, we aimed to explore stressful events, as self-defined by the participants, and the ways in which these men have coped with those stressful events. This study involved 12 men, aged 69–74, who participated in in-depth narrative interviews during which they were asked about transformative stressful events in their lives and how they had managed, understood, and utilized human capital, meaning-making, and other methods of coping. Analysis of the interviews revealed several themes: (a) the definition of stressful events within the cultural context, (b) the use of human capital to overcome those events, (c) the transformation of experience from hindsight into a didactic narrative that can be used to assign meaning to past events, which can then be passed on to the next generation, and (d) cultural transition as a catalyst for the creation of new understandings of events. This paper sheds new light on how elderly indigenous Bedouin men self-define stressful situations within a complex and unstable cultural context. This specific context, can help us to gain insight into how indigenous impoverished older men in similar contexts may self-define their stress and coping, based on the types of generalization accepted in qualitative research. The methodological contribution of this work lies in its use of narrative to culturally contextualize phenomenological meaning structures. Its theoretical contribution lies in its examination of the concept of stress within a specific cultural context.

FEATURES OF MORAL HARM RESEARCH IN CRIMINAL PROCESS

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 401-406
Author(s):  
M. O. Zhuravleva
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Trauma ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Close Relative ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Psychological Examination ◽  
Procedural Code ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Definition Of

The paper considers contradictions which arise after entering amendments in 2014 into article 242 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine, in which an obligatory appointment of psychological examination for the determination of moral harm amount in criminal trial is allocated. The thought on inexpediency of appointment of the person moral sufferings examination within the limits of criminal proceedings on the basis ofsuch positions is subtatiated: 1) before pronouncement of a court sentence on criminal proceedings a person’s guilt is not proved, in this case forensic psychological examination will be based on not proved premise - possibility of guilt which conflicts to an innocence presumption according to the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The expert conclusion is one of procedural sources ofproofs. Carrying out forensic psychological examination of moral harm within criminal proceedings, the expert, being based on the inadmissible assumption of guilty, creates the proof; 2) if the question of moral sufferings presence is considered within criminal proceedings, the fact of absence of the claimantfault has to be established by the court along with definition of the respondent fault degree; 3) pronouncement of a court sentence with definition of the parties guilty degree is an important point for definitive qualitative and quantitative formalizing moral sufferings. At the stage «before a sentence» the psychological trauma has not been yet led to the fullforming ofmoral sufferings, therefore during carrying out psychological research on the materials of criminal proceedings the amount of compensation should be defined only as "a preliminary"; 4) for the determination of the depth and heaviness of the person’s sufferings a psychologist needs to conduct a research only in 1 yearfrom the moment of injuring events (the person should go through stages of distress after losing close relative, to be treated and feel consequences at health damage).

Great Trek and Long Walk: Readings of a Biblical Symbol

1999 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-300
Author(s):  
Barbara Green
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Desmond Tutu ◽  
Fresh Insight ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractDiverse South African readings of "the exodus" offer convenient access to the complex processes of "meaning-making" which are currently under scrutiny in many disciplines. This essay investigates several diverse appropriations of the biblical text in order to read the classic journey story-particularly the moment of encountering the Canaanites-and to sort some of the methodological issues. First, a pair of opposite versions: white South African (Boer) and black South African (represented by Archbishop Desmond Tutu); second, a triad of critical approaches, but with different emphases (historical-critical, text-centered, reader-focused); and third, my own construal of Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, as yet another appropriation of liberation texts. In each case, the valuable questions to ask are how the interpreter has proceded and what has been the result, both for the understanding of texts and for the methodological discussion. The allegorical approach (Boer and Tutu) seems totally inadequate. The scholarly critical readings, with their behind-, within-, and before-the-text emphases are illuminating. But Mandela's construal, or at least my version of it, offers additional and fresh insight into the dynamics of liberation.

scholarly journals A Qualitative Investigation into the Cultural Master Narrative for Overcoming Trauma and Adversity in the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Blackie ◽  
Jade Colgan ◽  
Stephanie McDonald ◽  
Kate C. McLean
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Master Narrative ◽  
Narrative Psychology ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
And Function ◽  
Insight Into

Research in the field of narrative psychology has found that redemption – a narrative sequence in which people recount emotionally negative experiences as having positive endings – is a useful mechanism for coping with adversity. Redemption has been viewed as a cultural master narrative in North America, providing individuals with a socially valued script for narrating challenging life experiences. Presently little research has examined the presence and function of the redemption narrative outside of North American contexts. The aim of this qualitative study, therefore, was to identify themes in UK individuals’ narratives of trauma and adversity to gain insight into the content of the master narrative for meaning-making in the UK. Sixty-Five participants (57 females, Mage = 21.97, SD = 7.24) with little to no experience of lifetime adversity were recruited into an online survey. Participants answered open-ended questions adopting the perspective of a survivor from a selected UK national tragedy, focusing on how they felt survivors could recover from trauma. We identified two themes in our thematic analysis that were relevant to recovery: recuperation and redemption. Recuperation was most commonly reported, it was described as a gradual lessening of symptoms over time and the ability to cope with the lasting emotional and physical scars. Our findings suggest that redemption is not necessarily the dominant cultural script in the UK for guiding recovery in the aftermath of trauma.

scholarly journals Rozwój dziewiętnastowiecznego Szczecina w Geschichte der Stadt Stettin Martina Wehrmanna

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 9-27
Author(s):  
Agata Łysakowska
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Maritime Transport ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

Martin Wehrmann uważany jest za przedstawiciela najważniejszych historyków zajmujących się dziejami Pomorza Zachodniego. Był członkiem towarzystw regionalnych, w tym Towarzystwa Historii i Starożytności Pomorza oraz Pomorskiej Komisji Historycznej. Pozostawił po sobie wiele prac, w tym dwutomowe Geschichte von Pommern i Geschichte der Stadt Stettin. W drugim z wymienionych dzieł Wehrmann w trzech rozdziałach (Stettins Franzosenzeit, Stettin im 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Aufgebung der Festung, Die neueste Zeit seit 1873) opisał rozwój Szczecina w XIX w. Jest to charakterystyka o tyle interesująca, iż autor pisze o mieście sobie współczesnym, zwracając uwagę na procesy, które ukształtowały Szczecin jako miasto nowoczesne, takie jak: odbudowa miasta po okupacji francuskiej, działalność Korporacji Kupieckiej, funkcjonowanie portu i żeglugi, rozwój przemysłu i komunikacji, modernizację ulic, działalność i aktywność kulturalną konkretnych osób czy wreszcie: zniesienie twierdzy. W artykule wykorzystano definicje miasta nowoczesnego zaproponowane przez Krzysztofa K. Pawłowskiego, Marię Nietykszę oraz Bohdana Jałowieckiego. The development of 19th-century Szczecin in Geschichte der Stadt Stettin by Martin Wehrmann Martin Wehrmann is considered one of the most prominent experts on the history of Western Pomerania. He was a member of various regional societies, including the Society of Pomeranian History and Antiquity, and the Pomeranian Historic Committee. He is the author of many works, including the two-volume Geschichte von Pommern and Geschichte der Stadt Stettin. In three chapters of the latter work (Stettins Franzosenzeit, Stettin im 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Aufgebung der Festung, Die neueste Zeit seit 1873), Wehrmann described the development of Szczecin in the 19th century. This description is quite exceptional, as the author writes about the city as it was at the moment of writing, pointing to the processes which shaped Szczecin and made it a modern town, such as the reconstruction of the city following the French occupation, the activity of the Trade Corporation, the functioning of the port and maritime transport, the development of industry and transport, modernization of streets, the activity of specific people, including cultural activity, and the disassembly of the fortifications. The article used a definition of a modern town by Krzysztof K. Pawłowski, Maria Nietyksza, and Bohdan Jałowiecki.

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