Considering the absent but implicit and addressing personal failure

I am doing a series of reflections as part of a post graduate course on Narrative Therapy. Overall there will be about ten reflection papers on various concepts and practices that currently form and shape Narrative Therapy.

I found the set of readings to be heavy going because the sheer volume of writing by Michael seems to point to something very important in narrative therapy and its practice (White, 2000, 2004).  For me it urges the opening of our sight on seeing people, including ourselves, as living outside the definition of norms, the dominant discourses that surround us, or universal truths -- that there is not a specific “substance” but a “form” of how we are.

In practice, it creates for me a deep sense of hope that there will always be something that escapes the dominant problem stories that clients and those concerned with them present to me.  This something could come from various acts, thoughts, or expressions in response to problems, including the response to personal failure.  Such responses to problems point to a violation of what is valued by clients.  Problems become an opportunity for a “cross-over” to preferred stories.

In reading about the ethics of living and professional ethics, I feel encouraged to continue to actively question the various traditional practices and systems that may limit helpful developments for clients and my own practice.  Reading Jane Hutton’s article in which she explored her personal failure in relation to being a mother also reminded me of how such questions can be used in my own personal life as an ethical way of living (Hutton, 2008)

Whenever I encounter problem narratives I try to tune in to what is left unsaid or abandoned by others.  A school counsellor recently told me that a student was continually defiant to his teacher and had been complaining about him to her.  She had referred the student to me because she could not access his emotions and thus advised me that getting through to his emotions would be difficult because of this “complaining”.  I got very curious about what he is complaining about as in what exactly is he responding to so strongly.  Culturally “complaints” were meant to be kept private or otherwise they were perceived as “distractions” or “defensiveness”.

The discovery was not surprising as he described how this teacher was behaving oddly in class, spending time sharing his personal stories, especially mentioning his mum being ill in hospital.  There were signs that the teacher needed help. In the school system, questioning the performance of a teacher seemed taboo when I consulted the school counsellor about this.  I sensed my discovery and intervention in this situation posed a dilemma for the school counsellor.

In wanting to negotiate the relationship between the teacher and student I am in the midst of setting the context for some form of dialogue between them.  It is somewhat daunting but I am beginning to appreciate what was described as “another version of ethics … not passively received … is an activity in which we find ourselves exercised and stretched” (White, 2004).

References

Hutton, J. (2008). Turning the spotlight on the normalising gaze. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 1, 3-16.

White, M. (2000). Chapter 3: Re-engaging with history: the absent but implicit. In M. White (Ed.), Reflections on Narrative Practices: Interviews and Essays. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.

White, M. (2004). Chap 5: Addressing personal failure. In Narrative Practice and Exotic Lives: Resurrecting Diversity in Everyday Life. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.