Changing narrative schemas in psychotherapy.

Abstract

A model of narrative structure is introduced in order to describe clinically relevant changes in client's representations of life experience. The theory specifies key aspects of these representations in narrative terms, and as important targets for therapist interventions. Each target is illustrated with clinical examples germane to both dynamic and cognitive theories of psychotherapy.There is a growing interest among clinical psychologists in how individuals represent their experience. The role of narrative in the representation of an individual's life is argued to be central in psychodynamic treatments (e.g., Luborsky, Crits-Christoph & Mellon, 1986;Schafer, 1980Schafer, , 1981Spence, 1982), and to therapeutic change processes in client/therapist discourse (Russell, 1987<2, 1987£, 1991. Similarly, the role of schemas in psychotherapy has been advanced by cognitive therapists. Here, the focus has been on specific contents of schematic representation that have therapeutic relevance, namely, the representation of the self, the interpersonal world, and the emotions (e.g., Beck, 1987;Guidano & Liotti, 1983;Landau & Goldfried, 1981). The dynamic and cognitive therapy literatures focus on the contents and/or functions (e.g., filtering irrelevant information, biasing cognitive judgments) of narratives or schemas (e.g., Brandell, 1986). The relationship between narrative and schema is seldom recognized or addressed.In this article, we link the constructs of narrative and schema by proposing that narrative is a fundamental form of schematic representation, a view

Psychosis and the disintegration of dialogical self‐structure: Problems posed by schizophrenia for the maintenance of dialogue

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Trauma in the family: groupwork on family awareness for men in high security hospital

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