Narratives and Counseling, Part 1: From Analysis of the past to Stories about It

1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C. Vitz
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Short Life ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrative Story ◽  
Narrative Truth ◽  
Narrative Interpretation ◽  
Historical Truth

It is proposed that the present practice of psychotherapy and counseling would be enriched by introducing a narrative model of the psychotherapeutic process. Recent contributions supporting the importance of a narrative (story) based model are discussed. Theorists briefly treated are: Schafer (1980, 1983), with his narrative interpretation of Freud's major concepts and a narrative understanding of the psychoanalytic session; Spence (1982), who introduced the notion of narrative truth as distinct from historical truth for understanding a client's past, an approach that supports non-psychoanalytic narrative interpretation; and Viederman (1983; Viederman & Perry, 1980), who used short life histories for interpreting relatively healthy clients facing acute crises. Within this context and the narrative literary theory of Frye (1957), a Christian narrative approach to counseling is introduced.

Mink’s Riddle of Narrative Truth

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-370
Author(s):  
Chiel van den Akker
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrative Truth ◽  
As If

Abstract The problem how to ascertain the truth about the past is as old as history itself. But until the work of Louis Mink, no clear distinction was made between questions concerning the truth of statements on the past and questions concerning the truth of historical narratives as a whole. A narrative, Mink argues, is not simply a conjunction of statements on the past. Therefore its truth cannot be a function of the truth of its individual statements. The problem of narrative truth is according to him thus: although each statement (or set of statements) asserting a relation between events is subject to confirmation and disconfirmation, the combination of interrelations as established by the historical narrative is not, even though such combination of interrelations represents a real combination in past reality and is claimed to be true. As if to further complicate the problem, Mink maintains that history shares its form with fiction. Three and a half decades after Mink formulated the problem of narrative truth, it has not been dealt with in a satisfying manner. Mink does not solve nor dissolve the problem he posed. That task is taken up in this essay. It will move us away from the vocabulary of literary theory towards a pragmatist account of narrative truth.

A Narrative Approach to "Repressed Memories"

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore R. Sarbin
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Abuse ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Recovered Memories ◽  
Narrative Psychology ◽  
Repressed Memories ◽  
Multiple Personality ◽  
Narrative Truth ◽  
Forensic Setting ◽  
Historical Truth

Abstract I make use of insights from narrative psychology to illuminate claims made by advocates of the controversial multiple personality doctrine. The notion of "repressed memories" of childhood abuse is one of the foundations of the claim that one body can host two or more personalities. Until recently, a therapist could help a client reconstruct a failing self-narrative without being concerned with the historical truth of recovered memories. In the current litigious climate, clients bring suits in courts of law for damages supposedly caused by long-unremembered childhood instances of abuse by parents or other adults. In the forensic setting, the narrative truth that flows from the recovery of repressed memories is not enough; historical truth is required. I discuss the role of imagining in the construction of rememberings and the difficulties in establish-ing the historical truth of any remembering.(Psychology)

A Short Life of Kierkegaard

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Lowrie ◽  
Alastair Hannay
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
The State ◽  
Young Girl ◽  
Love Affair ◽  
Short Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
Hans Christian Andersen

A small, insignificant-looking intellectual with absurdly long legs, Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a veritable Hans Christian Andersen caricature of a man. A strange combination of witty cosmopolite and melancholy introvert, he spent years writing under a series of fantastical pseudonyms, lavishing all the splendor of his mind on a seldom-appreciative world. He had a tragic love affair with a young girl, was dominated by an unforgettable Old Testament father, fought a sensational literary duel with a popular satiric magazine, and died in the midst of a violent quarrel with the state church for which he had once studied theology. Yet this iconoclast produced a number of brilliant books that have profoundly influenced modern thought. This classic biography presents a charming and warmly appreciative introduction to the life and work of the great Danish writer. It tells the story of Kierkegaard's emotionally turbulent life with a keen sense of drama and an acute understanding of how his life shaped his thought. The result is a wonderfully informative and entertaining portrait of one of the most important thinkers of the past two centuries.

Syphilitic General Paralysis

1893 ◽  
Vol 39 (165) ◽  
pp. 217-224
Author(s):  
M. J. Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Short Life ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
Generic Term ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vexed Question

At the present time, when our fin de siècle knowledge of “general paralysis” enables us to recognize under that generic term many types of the disorder, and when the relation between it and syphilis continues a rather vexed question, little apology is needed for introducing to notice the following cases. They illustrate unmistakably some of the instances in which syphilis is solely responsible for what. Is termed by Dr. Savage” A process of degeneration which ultimately produces the ruin we recognize as general paralysis.”∗ Whatever may be hereafter formulated from the present evolutionary crisis in the history of the disorder there can be but little doubt that syphilis will be one of its most intimate and important relations. The story of its methods is briefly sketched in the following two short life-histories—in one asserting itself in the offspring of its victims by right of impure heredity, in the other carrying death direct into the vital centres by the force of its malignant virus.

Socialist Modernisation in Mongolia as Narrated after Socialism

Inner Asia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuki Konagaya
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Oral Histories ◽  
View Point ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
History Narratives

AbstractIn this article I introduce our collection of oral histories composed of life histories recorded between 2001 and 2006. First, I discuss some devices implemented in the process of collecting life histories, which was to make oral histories 'polyphonic'. I then suggest that oral history always has a 'dual' tense, in that people talk about 'the past' from the view point of 'the present'. This is illustrated by six cases of statesmen narrating their views about socialist modernisation. Finally, using one of the cases, I demonstrate the co-existence of non-official or private opinions along with official opinions about the socialist period in life-history narratives in the post-socialist period. I call this 'ex-post value'.

scholarly journals XIX.—A Preliminary Notice of Five New Species of Iron-Bacteria.

1908 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 338-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ellis
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Iron Bacteria ◽  
The Past

FOR the past two years I have been engaged in the investigation of the iron-water of Scotland, England, and Wales, and altogether have examined over a hundred samples. This publication is a preliminary notice of some new species of iron-bacteria which I have found in the course of this investigation. At present the number of known forms belonging to this class is six. In this paper I wish to outline the main characteristics of five new species, reserving for later papers the detailed accounts of their life-histories.

scholarly journals Decentering the Status Quo : The Rhetorically Sanctioned Political Engagement of Groen van Prinsterer

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-159
Author(s):  
Jan Adriaan Schlebusch
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Strategic Framework ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status

Abstract In his strategic political positioning and engagement in the nineteenth century, Groen van Prinsterer looked towards both the past and the future. Rhetorically, he appealed to the past as a vindication of the truth and practicality of his anti-revolutionary position. He also expressed optimism for the success of his convictions and political goals in the future. This optimism was reflected in the confidence with which he engaged politically, despite experiencing numerous setbacks in his career. Relying on the phenomenological-narrative approach of David Carr, I highlight the motives and strategies behind Groen’s political activity, and reveal that the past and the future in Groen’s narrative provide the strategic framework for his rhetoric, and the basis for his activism. I accentuate how the emphasis of his narrative shifts away from the status quo and thus enables a type of political engagement that proved historically significant for the early consolidation of the Dutch constitutional democracy.

scholarly journals Khoisan Identity: A Contribution towards Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Stephanus Klaasen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Significant Period ◽  
Fixed Boundaries ◽  
Or History

This article seeks to explore the identity of the Khoisan as symbolic for reconciliation in South Africa. What contributions can the narrative of a marginalised people such as the Khoisan make to reconciling a divided nation such as South Africa? The Khoisan have been victims of continuous dispossession since the arrival of Bartholomew Diaz at the Cape in 1488. However, it was the taking of land in 1657 from the Khoisan for the free burgers that marked a significant period for the current discourse on land and for identity and reconciliation within post-apartheid South Africa. Notwithstanding the attempts by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to use narratives for healing, restoration, and continuing engagement with the meta-narratives of the past, my own use of narrative is open-ended with space for dialogue through interaction. The past or history does not have fixed boundaries, but rather blurred boundaries that function as spaces of transcendence. The narrative approach has four interactionist variables which are personhood, communication, power as reflected experience, and fluid community. I point out weaknesses of the use of narrative by the TRC as well as the interaction between experience and theory by practical theologians to construct an open-ended narrative of the Khoisan for reconciliation in South Africa.  

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