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Why narrative therapy need not fear science and ‘other’ things
Author(s) -
Amundson Jon K.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6427
pISSN - 0163-4445
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6427.00177
Subject(s) - narrative , certainty , psychology , reification (marxism) , epistemology , dominance (genetics) , psychotherapist , sociology , aesthetics , philosophy , linguistics , political science , politics , biochemistry , chemistry , law , gene
Narrative psychotherapy was developed to question traditional, essentialist, foundational epistemologies of clinical practice. However, the very practices it sought to take on may be sneaking in through the back door. Narrative however might escape historical tendencies of reification and dominance. In fact these tendencies are only a slight miscue in its development. Instead of succumbing to old habits of perfectability, or certainty, narrative can relax, and just learn to relate. This article presents three key points in this regard: concentrate on what is useful, work backwards from what people want to achieve and ‘widen the circle’.