Thickening narrative therapy through existential psychotherapy

Thickening narrative therapy through existential psychotherapy

Once upon a time, right now. The past has been written from many perspectives, but the future is still blank and in the moment is the act of writing. Narrative therapy is a form of therapy that uses the narrative or story of how we view our life situations. We look for the crack in the lens that reveals an alternative way of perceiving our predicaments. Not to change the story, but to tell it from a different perspective. Narrative therapy honors these stories while still accepting that each perspective is imbued with the meaning that family, society, and culture have predetermined as the “correct” meaning. Existential therapy focuses on the individual attitude and on the “now” rather than on the past or future. In return, boundaries and extent are examined. The four main areas of inquiry within existentialism are meaning (vs. meaninglessness), freedom (vs. limitation), death (vs. life), and isolation (vs. inclusion) (Yalom, 1980). Narrative therapy and existential psychotherapy can help close the gaps left by each other. Including a past, present and future tense and to give meaning as both an individual and a collective stance.

The concept of meaning has eluded philosophers for thousands of years. Giving an exact definition has proven almost impossible. The way we use meaning is a common thread that runs through most major schools of psychotherapy. The view within narrative therapy is that meaning is not a given, nothing is imbued with meaning, but rather the interpretation of experience. This interpretation is made through the theory of social construction of reality. Accordingly (: “The social construction of reality”, 2009):

"The central concept of the social construction of reality is that individuals and groups interacting with one another in a social system form concepts or mental representations of each other's actions over time, and that these concepts eventually become accustomed to reciprocal roles that actors play in the real relationship with each other. When these roles are made available to other members of society to enter into and play out, the reciprocal interactions are said to be institutionalized. In the process of this institutionalization, meaning becomes embedded in society. Knowledge and the conception of people (and the Belief) in what is reality becomes embedded in the institutional structure of society.

A more general way of saying this is that we make sense of an experience through language, symbols, and interactive dialogue. First comes the experience and then that experience is filtered through these cultural transactions, which then leads to an interpretation. Just because we see the color blue, it is only “blue” because that is the assigned meaning that happened in a cultural context. A quick formula for meaning in narrative therapy is: experience plus interpretation equals meaning.

One of the main tenants of existential psychotherapy is the oft-quoted phrase from Sartre, “Existence precedes essence.” Meaning is personally constructed versus socially constructed. There are circumstances, like how we will all die, that we all have to face. The meaning is then personally constructed within this framework. What does the current moment mean since we will die at some point in the future? This meaning is believed to come from the individual. We become a more honest or authentic person when we acknowledge this limitation but ask ourselves what we will do about it. First there is just being, as in the present moment, and then we create the essence from it. Existential psychotherapy usually deals with overarching beliefs such as the question “What is the meaning of life?”

An important theoretical step in narrative therapy is to pay attention to the so-called sparkling moment. As a client relays the story of what brought them to the therapist's office, the therapist waits for an episode in the story that contradicts the main story. A story that tells a different picture of our preferred way of being. For example, when a client tells a story about depression, the therapist listens for an event or time when the depression was not present. Telling this alternative story in narrative therapy is called “re-authoring.” The therapist can help by also evoking what is known as a “memory conversation,” in which a primary focus is on the identity of a past significant other who contributed significantly to the client's life. This could be a friend, a lover, a parent, a musician, or even an author.

To help the client along this path, the therapist must remain decentered and non-influential. They can do this by helping the client “thicken” the preferred storyline by encouraging the details of the narrative rather than having a thin description of an event. For example, instead of just saying the weather is nice outside, ask questions about why the customer thinks it's nice outside. What is it, the smells, the air, the feeling, does it remind you of something? The therapist would do well to keep in mind the rich history of existential psychotherapy to thicken the preferred way of being.

Existential psychotherapy has a long history of being cognizant of the ways in which we use what Howard Gardner has called multiple intelligences. According to Wikipedia, they are physical-kinesthetic, interpersonal, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, naturalistic, intrapersonal, visual-spatial and musical intelligences (“Theory of multiple intelligences”, 2009). Howard Gardner proposed a ninth intelligence, which would be an existential intelligence. Existential intelligence would consist of the ability to question larger issues in life such as death, life, and possible spiritual meaning (“Theory of Multiple Intelligences,” 2009). Narrative therapy also encompasses this notion of multiple intelligences, even if this is not explicit. The therapist is encouraged to explore the best possible expression with the client. This can be done through music therapy, writing therapy, or even art therapy. Existential psychotherapy in conjunction with humanistic psychotherapy has historically promoted the concept of the whole self, including from an exploratory perspective. The therapist does not come from an expert role, but from an interest in the real person or a phenomenological approach. To be fully present in this approach, the intelligence that the customer works best with should be the path of exploration for further development.

We are now forever in the temporal, but always focused on future plans, worries, hopes or even dreams. Likewise, if we are not future-oriented, we are past-oriented. The past focused on our worries, shame, and even our doubts. This is typically the area of ​​narrative therapy. This means linking a sequence of events over a certain period of time and giving them meaning. Narrative therapy struggles with the moment of now. It posits a center or self in contrast to the Buddhist concept of no-self. This attitude of a self is denoted by the state of an observer exploring or remembering the action. The concept of no-self contradicts this position and has no observer, but this is now in the temporal. The concept of existence is the current now or becoming (like a flower opening into what it could be). Existential psychotherapy honors the past and the possible future, but the primary source of temporal time is the now. James Bugental calls this the living moment (Bugental, p.20). While the existential stance could prove very informative in the re-creating and thickening of the plot phase within narrative therapy. It could also be used in the problem-saturated stage of storytelling. If the client seems stuck on questions about the impact or judgment of a particular event, ask about current emotions, thoughts, smells, etc. to clear the block. Now, staying in the temporal, there are many facets that could be examined, for example the current kinesthetic experience. This is one way to solve the stuck problem.

Existential psychotherapists tend to limit themselves to four different areas to form meaning. They are freedom, death, isolation and meaninglessness (Yalom, 1980). Each of these areas can be constructed as a continuum. Freedom would have two extreme sides. At one end of freedom there would be the complete restriction of all freedom. Having no choice, like being tied up in a dungeon. The other end would be complete freedom, as found in libertine philosophies, where everything goes without restrictions. Existential psychotherapists assume that each of us falls somewhere on this continuum. In order to move forward to find relief from our struggles with our mental illness or anxiety, we must come to an individual understanding of where we are currently on this continuum and where we want to go or what we want to become. For example, if we feel like we have too much freedom due to overindulgence without restrictions, we may need to move a little on that continuum to achieve more restraint and help us balance. There are no right or wrong answers, but where the individual deems appropriate. In order to improve the preferred type of narrative therapy, this theory appears to be a limitation of meaning. This meaning is created by the therapist and client, but I argue that if we use it as a map, it can help us stay focused.

This opinion is not intended to be a position based on a complete theoretical stance. The author acknowledges that both narrative therapy and existential psychotherapy come from a very rich philosophical but very different background. There have been few philosophers who have attempted to explore the similarities between postmodernism and existentialism. When you look for connections, you can always find those connections down to the smallest details, but each philosophy is really a different project. The therapeutic posture or pou sto is a completely different matter. Narrative therapy does not only use postmodernism as a philosophical background, and existential psychotherapy does not only use a strict philosophy of existentialism. Instead, these philosophical backgrounds are an applicable way to use these different therapeutic viewpoints to attempt to heal our mental illnesses. As Foucault stated in his last known interview (William V. Spanos, p.153) "For me, Heidegger was always the essential philosopher... My entire philosophical development was determined by my reading of Heidegger."

What are some of the future directions for thickening narrative therapy with existential psychotherapy? An initial narrative therapy would be well suited to further clarify what is meant by thickening of the preferred story. What does it mean to make this story more real or to focus on the grand narratives? There needs to be a more philosophical discussion about the idea of ​​meaning, as both forms of therapy place an emphasis on finding meaning, but they just come at it from different angles and different projects. The question could also be asked whether these two different therapies are as compatible as this author suggests. If not, why not? And is there a way forward?

As this story (theoretical positioning) comes to a close, it is important to remember that these are questions and not absolute truths. The story can still be changed by adding subtle details and subtracting the distractions. The one thing that can be said is that narrative therapy and existential psychotherapy are strangers walking the same path.

References

1. Bugental, James FT (1999). Psychotherapy is not what you think: bring psychotherapeutic engagement into the living moment. Phoenix, Az.: Show Tucker & Theisen Publishers.

2. The social construction of reality. (2009, July 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 8, 2009 at 10:46 p.m. from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Social_Construction_of_Reality&oldid=301080937.

3. Spanos, Williams V. (1993). Heidegger and Criticism: Retrieving the Cultural Politics of Destruction. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

4. Theory of multiple intelligences. (2009, August 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 4, 2009 at 4:07 p.m. from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theory_of_multiple_intelligences&oldid=306033977.

5. Yalom, Irvin D. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.

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