Sharing stories: Transforming lives
4th
Counselling and Transformation
Annual Keele University Counselling Conference
26th- 28th March 2010
Michael Murray
The prologue
• Performance of
Canterbury Tales by
Northern Broadsides at
New Vic Theatre
• Enthusiastic reception
• Integral role of narrative
in everyday life
• Performative nature of
narrative
The writer
•
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
•
Wrote the tales in parts
•
Work was unfinished
•
Included details from different
sources including references to
the author
•
Like life itself, it was
accumulative and unpredictable
– Peter Ackroyd
Canterbury Tales
• Tales told by group of 28
pilgrims as they make their
way from Southwark to
Canterbury
– … to Canterbury they wende
The holy blissful martir for to seke
– And made forward erly for to ryse,
To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse
• All agreed to tell a tale and
the best was would receive a
meal paid by the others
– The best sentence and moost solaas
Big tale
• Big narrative is that of the
pilgrimage
• It is a metaphor for the journey
to the new Jerusalem
• Life is seen as a pilgrimage
– This world nys but a thurghfare ful
of wo
And we been pilgrymes, passynge
to and fro
Little tales
• Within it there are many small
stories – 24 tales in all
• Each tale is shared with the others
• These tales are drawn from a
variety of classic, religious and
other sources
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
• Through a variety of amusing
anecdotes considers the role of
women in marriage
– Experience, though noon auctorittee
Were in this world, is right ynogh for
me
To speke of wo that is in mariage
• Her experiences with five husbands
• Men have to pleasure their wives
and wives have to keep control of
their husbands
The Miller’s Tale
• Tale of a young woman who is
married to an old man
• She develops relationship with
young man
• Tale is full of bawdy humour
– Derk was the nyght as pich,
or as the cole,
And at the wyndow out she
putte hir hole
David Salle
The Millers Tale
Different types of tale
• Smaller tales
– Tales as entertainment
– Moral tales on the role of
women
– Tales about how things are
not what they seem
• Bigger tale
– Life as a journey to a
heavenly paradise
– Life as being full of woe
– Need for entertainment
– Stories as source of moral
truths
General principles
• Human’s view the world in
the form of narratives
• Narratives are organised
sequences of events
• Events occur in time
• Narrative provides an
understanding of how
events are linked
Philosophical background
• Humans live in a temporal
world
• The construction of
narrative is a means of
organizing and making
sense of the temporal flux
• Paul Ricoeur contrasts the
“discordance of time” with
the “concordance of the
tale”
Psychological background
• Stories are a form of thinking
• Stories organize our everyday
experiences
• Forges links between the
exceptional and the ordinary
(Bruner, 1990)
• Stories help orient us to the
world
Social psychological background
• Stories are part of everyday
conversation
• Stories are a means of
accounting to others
• Stories can help or hinder
interaction
• Stories are influenced by
others and in turn influence
others
Socio-cultural background
• We construct stories about
our past (histories)
• We also live within those
broader social narratives
• “Stories are habitations. We
live in and through stories.
They conjure worlds. We do
not know the world other
than as story world. Stories
inform life. They hold us
together and keep us apart.”
– (Miller Mair, 1989)
The stories
with paintings by Frida Kahlo
(sometimes inspired by her relationship with
Diego Rivera)
Illness and narrative
• Advent of serious illness is
a major crisis in our lives
both socially and
psychologically
• The study of narrative can
help us understand how
people react to serious
illness
Illness and narrative: People bleed stories
•
•
“My initial experience of illness
was as a series of disconnected
shocks, and my first instinct was
to try to bring it under control
by turning it into a narrative.
Always in emergencies we invent
narratives. We describe what is
happening as if to confine the
catastrophe. Storytelling seems
to be a natural reaction to
illness. People bleed stories
and I’ve become a blood bank
of them”
Anatole Broyard (1992)
•
Intoxicated by My Illness: And
Other Writings on Illness and
Dying ; A Critic Writes About
Being Critically Ill
Narrative analyses
• Meaning of illness
• Interpersonal
context
• Plot of illness
• Societal context
Cancer stories
Nina: a 50
year old single
mother with
three children:
two older and
one younger
Jane: a 47
year old
married
woman with
one young
adopted child
Lucy: a 35
year old
woman with
one young
child
Bonnie: a 52
years old
woman with
two grown
children
Meaning of illness
•
Going beyond content of the illness to
consider the social and emotional
meanings
– Loss of sense of invulnerability
• We may try to deny that life is finite but
serious illness reminds us otherwise
– Loss of function/identity
•
Serious illness can threaten our ability and our
very identity
– Loss of appearance
• Illness can also impair our appearance
which then involves various concealment
strategies
•
Meanings linked to identity
Meaning of cancer: loss of social
function/identity
Nina – threat to motherhood/ threat to children
•
“My kids were more important and I
didn’t want them to be raised by
somebody else like I was raised by
somebody else”.
•
“I had to get up, go have chemo and
come home and look after three
children and it was like wicked,
wicked.”
•
•
Challenge to maternal responsibilities
Motherhood central to identity
Meaning of cancer: loss of physical function
Jane – threat to bodily capacity
• “I figured I wasn’t going to
use my breasts per se
(laughs) … I’ve never had a
child. We couldn’t have
one, so that was really sort
of wasn’t on the cards.”
• “for some reason or
another the thing that
worried me or worries me
was the possible loss of the
use of my arm”.
• Work is central to identity
Meaning of cancer: loss of appearance
Lucy – threat to physical appearance
• “I got it [breast] off and
instantly I felt like a little girl
again. I really did because
you don’t have your breasts. I
was like … I felt like a little
girl. … You even look at
yourself different. You look
like a little girl.”
• “but that passes. That goes.
… It doesn’t bother me not to
have breasts.”
• Importance of breasts for
female identity
Narrative structure/plot
• The meaning is enmeshed
in a particular plot line
which gives a broader sense
of meaning
• Detail the background to
the event
• Detail the prospects and
the overall orientation to
the future
• Transform loss into gain
Narrative structure:
Classic types of narrative
• Comedy:
– Ongoing challenge and
counter-challenge
• Romance:
– Initial challenge is
overcome
• Tragedy:
– Ongoing struggle against
adversity, but ultimately
fails
The Little Deer
Types of narrative:
Jane: Cancer as comedy
— Hard work and good fortune
— Life a series of challenges
and successes
— “It happened. There is no sense in
crying over spilt milk”.
— “I think that you … at least me
anyway … I’m almost at my most
vulnerable when I think I’m through
something. It’s like I’ve done it. I’ve
made it but I don’t think you feel
you’ve got the reserve to handle
anything else.”
Types of narrative:
Lucy: Cancer as romance
— Transform challenge into an
opportunity for growth
— “I’m going to pass on some day. I know
that and I can deal with it. I’m not
afraid. That changed. I came to that
realization. And, like I said, just how you
perceive yourself. Like you don’t need
breasts to be a woman.
— I’ve matured that way, I guess … just my
whole outlook on life, you know. You go
for life, you don’t go for the other way.
There’s no point. So I’m just happy. I’m
a happy person.”
Types of narrative
Bonnie – Cancer as romance - opportunity
•
“I’m very positive about life.
I’m a positive person anyway. I
tend to look on the bright side
and hope for the best. I try to
see the best in everything really.
It’s the only way. Otherwise,
like I’ve said earlier, there’s lots
of doom and gloom out there.
Try not to look at it, focus on
the positive.”
•
Transform tragedy into
opportunity
Types of narrative:
Nina: Romance to tragedy
•
Many challenges overcome
•
Phase I: Difficulty, struggle,
transcendence
•
Phase II: Diagnosis and treatment
•
Phase III: Edge of decline
– “if it happens tomorrow and
he’s only twelve I will flip, I
will really go crazy … because
what’s going to happen to
him … welfare would come
and take him, always worry
about all that kind of
stuff.”
Narrative context:
Personal and Interpersonal
• Personal
– Stories told connected to
previous life experiences
• Interpersonal
– There is always a listener
or an assumed listener
• "I must say I find it difficult
talking about myself. Umm …
I don't know what to say."
The Two Fridas
Stories in context
• We live and share
stories in context
• The stories we tell
are influenced by and
influence those
around us
• Cancer stories
– Handle with Care
• Based upon narrative
interviews with women
who have had cancer,
their partners and
doctors
• Development of dramatic
performance
Interpersonal context:
Lucy – need to be positive
• “When I was going through it I
was too busy to think about
anything negative because like I
said I was taking care of, trying
to take care of, myself and a
brand new baby. … I just had
that mindset that I’m going to
be OK because I have to be now
that I’m a mother.”
• “Well my husband was totally
devastated. I think that’s what
really helped me so much … I had
to play the reverse role.
Because he was so devastated I
felt I couldn’t be.”
Interpersonal context
Bonnie – Not able to disclose feelings
•
Opportunity to tell stories and to
disclose feelings depends upon
the immediate context
•
Often relatives do not know how
to handle situation. The sick
person often feels they cannot
express their emotions
•
“I know that the day I was
diagnosed when I came home my
sister-in-law called and when I
gave her the news, of course,
she was so upset she started to
cry and I became very emotional
but I thought I can’t talk now, I
can’t cry because my son was
writing an exam that night and
I didn’t want to let him know.”
Narrative context:
Societal
• Stories mesh with
broader societal
stories of myths
• Popular image of
cancer patient
– Hero myth
– Victim myth
Narrative context:
Bonnie: No hero but acceptance of recovery
• “When you know you’ve
had any type of major
illness you’re thankful for
good health,
• so you tend to … well I do
anyway. I take one day at
a time. And I try to be
very happy that I’m
healthy.”
Narrative context:
Lucy: Combatting victim myth
•
“I’m right into the swing of things
again. I feel fantastic about it all.
So for me it wasn’t a terrible
thing. You know. All of it. It
wasn’t a terrible thing. I’m not
making light of it but in my opinion
I have no choice but to look on
the up side. Look towards life
because there is no other side.
•
That’s just the way I looked at it
and that’s the way I still look at it.
So I’m … you know … I mean I have
people say to me “Oh my god, you
poor thing. You’ve been through so
much. I’m praying for you. . I’m
like, you know, I’m OK. Until they
tell me I’m not, I’m OK.”
Cancer and narrative
• People with cancer tell
stories about their illness
• The opportunity to tell
these stories is important
for recovery
• These stories tell us about
the person but also their
interaction with the social
world
The epilogue
Transforming stories
• Looking back: past events can
be reorganized such that the
person is more comfortable
with the memories
• Looking forward: the future is
open and can be plotted in
different ways
• The aim of therapy is to not
only look back but to consider
the future options
Stories and mental health
•
“Persons experience problems, for
which they frequently seek
therapy, when the narratives in
which they are ‘storying’ their
experience, and/or in which they
are having their experience
‘storied’ by others, do not
sufficiently represent their lived
experience, and that, in these
circumstances, there will be
significant aspects of their lived
experience that contradict these
dominant narratives.”
–
–
(Michael White & David Epston, 1990
Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends)
Work of narrative
Biographical work
• Attempts to integrate
challenge into broader life
story
• New stories are developed in
dialogue
• Explore opportunities for
biographical work
Work of narrative
Normalizing events
• Narrative provides meaning
through organization and
systematization
• Process of normalization
difficult because others are
often unaware
The Love Embrace of the Universe
Work of narrative
Bonnie: Normalizing events
•
“I was always aware of the
feelings of others. I always tried
to please people. I didn’t go out
of my way to cause trouble.”
•
“I think you accept it and try to
deal with it the best you can
because what else can you do?”
•
“Its sort of been an up and down
battle since chemo but I’m happy
to say that things have finally
straightened themselves out…But
anyway, it happened and I’m doing
OK now. It was rough but I made it
through.”
Role of therapist
• Provide opportunity for telling
and re-telling of narratives
• Challenge and confront
certain narrative accounts
• Discuss value of new
narratives
• Validate changes
Alternative stories
•
“Insofar as the desirable outcome of
therapy is the generation of
alternative stories that incorporate
vital and previously neglected aspects
of lived experience,
•
and insofar as these stories incorporate
alternative knowledge,
•
it can be argued that the
identification of and provision of
space for the performance of these
knowledges is a central focus of the
therapeutic endeavour.”
• White and Epston, 1990
Therapeutic goals
• Enable client to articulate
stories
• Challenge the inevitability of
narrative structure
• Develop and try new
narratives
Therapist-client interaction
• “The analyst finishes a piece
of construction and
communicates it to the
subject of analysis so that it
may work on him;
• he then constructs a further
piece out of the fresh
material pouring in on him,
deals with it in the same way
and proceeds in this
alternating fashion until the
end”
• Freud, 1937
Role of client
• Articulate narrative accounts
of experiences
• Explore new narratives in
words
• Try out new narrative
directions
New plots
•
“In contrast with cognitive
therapists who seek to dismantle
distorted automatic thoughts,
irrational beliefs, and illogical
inferences in a piecemeal fashion,
•
[narrative] therapists attempt to
articulate the subtext that
undergirds the plot of the client’s
life
•
and to help him or her experiment
with new plots that open
possibilities for fresh chapters.”
–
( Robert Neimeyer, 1995)
Coda – a return to Chaucer
•
Life is a journey within which we
tell and share stories
• This world nys but a
thurghfare ful of wo
And we been pilgrymes,
passynge to and fro
•
These stories not only provide
entertainment but an
interpretation of events and a
guide to the future
Chese another tale
• Narrative therapy can
provide a forum for
telling stories about
certain experiences and
considering alternative
stories
• And therfore, whose list it
nat ytheere,
Turne over the leef and chese
another tale
– The Miller’s Prologue
References
—
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—
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—
Murray, M. (2000). Levels of narrative analysis in health psychology. Journal of Health Psychology, 5(3), 331342.
—
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