Journal May 2026 Release_Full Edition - Flipbook - Page 64
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about what their concerns and conclusions are in relation to. Michael White
(1990) outlines this for us saying:
The narrative mode redefines the relationship between the observer
and the subject. Both “observer” and “subject” are placed in the
“scientific” story being performed, in which the observer has been
accorded the role of the privileged author in its construction. When
we locate a therapy within the context of the narrative mode of
thought, stories about life are considered to have been constructed
through “the filter of the consciousness of the protagonist.” Thus,
the transcendental “we” and the “it” of the subjectified person are
replaced by the pronouns “I” and “you” of the personified person
(pp. 82 - 83).
In the context of problems, narrative therapy is interested in the significance of
the important details of the story that tells of what the person is up against, and
what is being relied upon to survive, manage, press forth, hang on, hold firm,
stand against, for and with, or fight back. By concerning itself with “stories about
life [that are] considered to have been constructed through the filter of the
consciousness of the protagonist” (White & Epston, 1990), narrative therapy is
positioned to open up gaps in the story where there is a lack of information about
how the person is endeavoring to realize their own moral potential. By asking
questions through the filter of the first-person perspective, we are honoring the
consciousness through which the person seeking care, the protagonist, has
constructed their stories about life and how these constructions are organizing of
what is possible and what is not. This is to say, a therapy that operates by the
principle that life is lived in coordination with how it has been constructed is
subject to being re-constructed in ways that open possibilities for how it might be
lived otherwise.
I will attempt to demonstrate two forms of inquiry that ask about problems, their
effects, and the person’s resistance to said problem through the filter of their
first-person perspective.
Animative Descriptions and Vivifying Discovery: Inviting Clients Into The Marvel Of Their Understory
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, May 2026 Release, p. 52-79.
www.journalnft.com
