postmodern ethics in narrative therapy

7/28/2019 Postmodern Ethics in Narrative Therapy

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Running Head: Postmodern Ethics in Narrative Therapy 1

PSYC 6738 Narrative and Brief Therapy

Postmodern Ethics in Narrative Therapy

Emaline Friedman

University of West Georgia


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PSYC 6738 Narrative and Brief Therapy


As a therapeutic modality, narrative therapy considers itself having successfully

encapsulated the principle tenets of postmodernism through its social constructionist worldview,

adherence to the ideological aspects of narrative philosophy, and reconsideration of the

therapist/client relationship. All of these factors merge to scaffold a distinct set of ethical values

which speaks volumes to the utility of adopting postmodernism into the therapeutic setting and

marks a contribution to a pluralistic, social constructionist account of ethics from a

psychological/mental health system perspective. Further, the ethical ideas embedded in the

practice of narrative therapy indicate great congruence between a postmodern perspective and

the narrative therapeutic perspective.

This paper will begin with a short exposition of the way that the ethics of postmodernism,

rendered in Freedman and Combs, 1996, are integrated into (and in fact, emerge descriptively

and epiphenomenally from) the practice of narrative therapy. The ethical stance(s) will be

unpacked and critically assessed in contrast to more traditional and fixed notions of ethical

practice in other psychotherapeutic systems. Then, a view of these principles in action, albeit in a

non-clinical context, will be offered as a guide, pointing out different ways that a social

constructionist worldview may serve as a flexible and highly useful method for reflecting on an

ethics of interaction both inside andoutside of therapy settings. Journal excerpts will be analyzed

vis--vis narrative therapys postmodern ethical principles discussed previously, exposing some

of the merits of this system as a worldview.


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Following the principles of postmodernity, the ethics of narrative therapy are centered on

the idea that the communities, discourses, and worldviews which come to bear on our senses of

self and thus our ideas of and possibilities for well-being are choices (Freedman & Combs,

1996). As such, many of the entities established as unchanging in other forms of psychotherapy,

like self, personality, and corresponding relational and achievement potentialities are portrayed

as molded by their co-construction from moment to moment. Another major contrast between the

postmodern ethics of narrative therapy and rule-oriented ethical systems which connote

objectively good and bad practice is the formers emphasis on effects. Thus, these ethics pose

questions to the narrative therapist that requires that he or she be unceasingly vigilant of the

therapeutic relationship at hand. This heightened awareness of the way that people are viewed

and power is distributed (and by whom!) simultaneously invites an opening of possible effects on

the client based in the contingent nature of these constructs. Put another way, thinking deeply

about the social scene in the therapy room allows the therapist to fully appreciate and enact

changed based upon that scenes malleability.

In place of the universally applied stringent protocols that are meant to ensure traditional

methods of therapy be ethically sound, narrative therapys ethics allow for each clients case to

be handled in a way form-fitted for their unique situation. The relationship between client and

therapist is managed with respect to the likelihood of different worldviews and sensitivity to

expectations and beliefs of the client which, as socially-constituted and often fluctuating, dictate

frequent reassessments and postures that liberate rather than constrain new renderings (Epston &

White,). Here, we see great similarity between the management of the client/therapist

relationship and the way that substantive issues are handled in narrative therapy. In both cases,

the highest priorities are letting such priorities, along with all values, relationships, and concepts,


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remain open to reconfiguration when considered appropriate. Where most forms of therapy

contort facets of clients lives such that they fit happily into ideas about the self, which are

understood as stable in comparison to life circumstances and situations, narrative therapy

challenges the self as stagnant paradigm. This challenge tacitly suggests that the freedom that

comes with reconfiguring and re-appropriating attitudes ultimately behooves the client much

more than clinging to a self that is idealized as predetermined or inescapable.

Despite the wide array of benefits afforded by an ethical system which is self-critical to

the point that it remains perpetually open to new ethical postures, a few difficulties are cause for

remaining cautious and questioning in application of the tenets discussed. Of greatest concern are

a few of the complications that arise in the wake of always newly establishing facets of the client

and his or her convictions, previously conceptualized as marking that which is certain and

comfortable. Implementing a deconstructive therapy involves the same willingness to

problematize systems of understanding (which can feel rather personal!) as deconstructive work

in postmodern philosophy. This method of questioning carries with it the latent assumption that,

if posed, a client somehow knows what sorts of modifications to their conceptions will be of

benefit to them. Should he or she elicit a great deal of suggestion from the therapist, there exists

the threat that the latter assumes more of an expert role which attributes and invites more

assumptions about the needs and views of the client.

Further, the preference for coherence in empowering oneself and others a la Karl Tomms

model is outlined by Freedom and Combs as noting inconsistencies between intent and effect and

privileging emotional dynamics in order to seek intuitive consistency (p. 271). Coherence as

described imputes a form of essentialism about motivation and agency which interferes with the

postmodern spirit of questioning and modifying feelings and reactionseven those as central as


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intuitive consistency. It may also be dangerous insofar as it connotes that certain value systems

yield certain results that the client must be aware of. Although some connections between

probable causes and effects can be useful in some instances, narrative therapists may be weary of

implanting reveries of linearity instead of practicing and inspiring openness to uncertainty that

stands to better prepare the client for lifes anomalies and incongruences. These concerns speak

to the ongoing relational dance between therapist and client and the imperative that

postmodernisms ethics must obey their prescription to continuously rethink and recalibrate

power dynamics.

In order to grasp the breadth of possibilities for the principles of postmodern ethics as

they are engendered in the social constructionist worldview of narrative therapy, we now turn to

the analysis of a particular problem through the lens here explored. This scenario, experienced as

problematic and upsetting by Lucy, is meant to be generic in the sense that it is not necessarily

an issue with which therapy is known to deal. Although this story is nuanced and presents as a

very specific instance, we can understand it as exemplary of a non-clinical situation which may

be supported, if not entirely rectified, by enacting the shift in worldview and corresponding set of

ethics of postmodernism.

The analysis itself will be executed through a narrative recounting offacets of Lucys

plight, supplemented by a postmodern ethical voice (denoted by bold font) which will interject

with ideas toward reconfigurations of the undesirable and frustrating aspects ofLucys account.

The interjected postmodern voice will intentionally bracket the explicit use of any of the methods

used by narrative therapy practitioners, instead vying to consider only its stated ethical

principles. This execution will serve two purposes. By remaining nave to the prescriptions and

suggestions oft-used in narrative therapy, a portrait of a pure application of postmodern ethics


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may begin to emerge. Also, this will give a sense of the interaction and degree of consistency

between narrative therapys worldview and its application.

Lucy is a 22 year old graduate student who, short on time and money, made the decision

to donate her eggs to an infertile couple of hopeful parents-to-be by responding to an

advertisement online to register with an agency that matches donors and recipients, in addition to

facilitating the complicated and logistically messy donation process. The following are first-

person journal entries describing and reflecting upon various stages in the process, including a

Skype video conference with the infertile couple, explaining her decision to undergo the

medically risky procedure to her father, and handling logistical details of the donation cycle with

a representative of the matching agency.

Skype Conference with the Couple

When the call ended I had a little bit of that same feeling that I always get with Skype calls, that

Ive connected with the people on the other line and at the same time that I didnt at all. The

mom seemed like a decently nice woman, although she seemed a little more interested in the fact

that were both vegetarians than about anything very substantive.Maybe a more expansive

notion of what is considered substantive might be helpful to be more understanding of

different concerns that different people have. Although you may not be in a stage of life

where eating practices are important, there may be any number of reasons that can be

imagined from her past experiences of a vegetarian lifestyle or her current values that

would very justifiably make her entertain this topic extensively. She told me a little bit about

having existential angst about not being able to get pregnant through normal means, which I

guess is normal. Is this labeling of normal a good idea in terms of having an open and non-

oppressive relationship with the mom (who it seems Lucy wants to like)? Instead of


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describing her feelings as normal, which could cause Lucy to set up expectations of the

mom based on her own, situated idea of what normal is, Lucy could consider that angst

as valid in itself purely by virtue of it being an honest emotion. Like everybody else she

assumed that Im a very understanding person just because of the psychology degree Im

earning, but then again, how else could she have judged me? She knows everything there is to

know about me on paper, actually way more than I ever would have without having to call up a

ton of family members to fill me in on all my roots and everything that I really should know

about myself. Rather than playing to others preconceptions about her, even down to the

socio-culturally determined set of things one should know about [oneself], Lucy might

combat a self-conception that is contingent upon anothers uncontested discourse by

thinking about the way she would structure her own self-knowledge and determine

independently what type of self-knowledge would satisfy her. The father was different

though, that was WEIRD. I keep telling everyone I just spoke to the first father of my children

not necessarily a point of pride, but at least its not something one does every day. I always

make jokes about this whole thing, but I dont know how it will feel to know that someone else is

really raising my biological child. In order to assuage her own trepidation, Lucy could re-

think her joking designation of the first father of my children. It can be said that Lucy is

responsibly using humor to make light of a very serious situation. However, this joke

indicates and reifies a construction of the situation as serious. A label like the recipient of

my gift might take switch the interpretation of the donor/recipient relationship from

carrying the finalizing decree of a father of her first children to one that marks her act as

kind and giving.

Announcing the Decision


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Today I finally told Dad about the egg stuff. I felt kinda shitty telling mom not to tell him, I just

know how weird he is about health stuff and I thought I should just lay it down for him myself. I

hate it when things just get around through the grapevine, which they tend to do when my moms

involved. Anyway, all I did was explain that doing this would give me enough money to let me

breathe a little easier throughout my 20s, which I think is really important. He seemed to

understand that, which I think is pretty consistent with the way hes always let me make my own

choices. Does this attribution of consistency to dad take into account the way he himself

might strive to act, or does it deprive him of the freedom to assess news and lend support to

the best of his abilities? Afterward though, he kept sending me all these emailsresults of

medical research, articles, what have you, all showing the horrors of egg donation and basically

suggesting that Im going to have serious side effects. He probably thinks Im just one of a hoard

of nave, lazy girls with good genes who think they can get rich quick. Instead of assuming that

she understands the tacit suggestion of her own inadequacy, Lucy could try following the

thread of a different possible meaning that her fathers emails emanate that does not

assume an agenda that he has not explicitly stated. Lucy might also reposition herself by

acknowledging that the nave, lazy girls with good genes is her own indexing of a possible

type of girl to be in the dominant discourse that she alone has the choice to accept or

contest. I know what Im in for, and I dont get why no one else realizes that this is WORK.

Work is not supposed to be easy or even risk free, really. If he wants to support me by scaring

me and insinuating that Ive not even thoroughly considered what Im doing, then I dont want

that support. Here, Lucy might benefit from questioning where her own notion of support

comes from, and whether or not she would be willing to expand this notion to include

alternate conceptions like her fathers. This might also gear her toward an understanding


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of the mismatch between her and her fathers inclinations about what type of support

would be most accommodating based on their respective positions vis--vis the egg

donation topic, their relationship as father and daughter, and their social contexts.

Handling Logistical Details

I am so fucking done with corresponding with all these women who have their cute electronic

signatures and are so polite and probably are just eating their little probiotic yogurts and patting

themselves on the back for giving the gift of life on a daily basis.Its so obnoxiously

transparent to me that all they care about is making sure the whole process is legally sound and

that the people who are actually paying them, the couple, is happy. Lucy could reassess her

characterization of the women with whom she is working by drawing from positive

instances and consider the other values and forces (besides money) driving the others

involved in the egg donation process to foster respect for different methods of

communicating. I only have a two other jobs and a five class semester on my hands, so of

course Im delighted to answer 7 emails from 3 different representatives a day asking me to drive

an hour away to pick up medications and fax and overnight documents. I know I tend to take on

too much, but these people just dont have any sense for the fact that I have a life too and my

first priority isnt to run errands for them.To contrast the victim role enacted in hyperbolic

complaints, Lucy can practice telling about her plight by situating herself as a hard

worker, go-getter or a different portrayal that allows her to feel free as opposed to

oppressed. Lea, the manager of the whole thing, always responds to my concerns in rote fashion.

I told her the other day that I wanted to be reimbursed for all that I paid up front for gas and

parking and she sent me the part of our contract that outlines reimbursement procedures and

asked me to mail her my receipts. Why do I have to do all this when Im the one giving the eggs?


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The whole point of this is to earn money I dont have, not to lose it on being some egg-producing

machine.

These methods for reconfiguring how Lucy conceptualizes and behaves with

respect to juggling all of the emotionally taxing facets of an egg donation cycle seemed to fall

out naturally from holding in mind the preceding discussion of a postmodern ethical standpoint.

Overall, the types of suggestions constructed exclusively through a close reading of Lucys

journal excerpts seem to invoke several of the tools advocated in narrative therapy. This lends

convincing support for a positive response to the question of congruence between a postmodern

ethical system as elucidated by narrative therapy and its application. As such, this analysis can be

understood finally to be making a case for many of the methods employed by narrative therapy

practitioners.

The interspersed analysis has the quite transparent shortcomings of (1) lacking evidence

about whether or not the ethical suggestions indeed aided the development of the desired changes

or other effects on Lucys life and (2) embodying my best but still limited effort to bracket the

actual methods of narrative therapy, to which I had previously only had meager exposure. The

absence of these constraints could indeed cause a reader to draw very different conclusions about

the utility of applying postmodern ethics. This concern notwithstanding, the analysis here

instated is only meant to highlight the types of changes that appear when attention is paid to the

values articulated by a social constructionism perspective. The fluctuation between suggestions

for changes in a more broad attitude held vs. an assessment of a particular situation harken back

to the postmodern allowance of non-mandated fluidity of traditionally-viewed deeper ideas

related to self and world.


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Particularly notable in the analysis was the appearance ofre. Redefining, reimagining,

and rearticulating figured in chiefly as markers of having deconstructedparticular ideas and

assessments in Lucys excerpts. The all-important re also points to the unique possibility of

imagining and choosing different possible framings of events and emotions. Therefore, rigid

fixity of people and situations that can provoke anxiety and constraint was replaced by an

acknowledgment and transcendence of the notion that our ideas about things represent only one

of an unthinkable amount of discourses.


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References

Freedman, J. & Combs, G. (1996).Narrative therapy: The social construction of preferred

realities, chapter 1. New York: Norton.

White, M. & Epston, D. (1990).Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: Norton.

postmodern ethics in narrative therapy

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