Co‐texting, chronotope and ritual: a Bakhtinian framing of talk in therapy

Abstract

This article employs a set of concepts developed by Mikhail Bakhtin in analysing the significance of language in therapeutic work. Employing his theoretical constructs, sequences of a videotaped transcript of a therapy session are analysed by a multidisciplinary team. This is combined with the notion of co-texted ritual in working with a woman who attempted suicide prior to this session. The findings suggest that co-texting gives direction to the meaning of ritual as well as the outcome of the therapeutic process. Bakhtinian concepts are found to be helpful in guiding, analysing and widening therapeutic processes. The findings also indicate that there is a need for a closer examination of ritual both as a constitutive and expanding force in narrative therapy. Finally, it is suggested that current assumptions about egalitarian relationships between therapists and clients require rethinking.

Avoiding Colonizer Positions in the Therapy Room: Some Ideas About the Challenges of Dealing with the Dialectic of Misery and Resources in Families

“…For some time now we have been arguing for a view of therapy as a dialogical one where family members and therapists together contribute to the therapeutic conversation, and where therapists are open to the family's feedback about the therapeutic process ( Seltzer, 2004;Rober, 2005;Seltzer et al, 2000Seltzer et al, , 2001. Within this dialogical framing, we view the therapist's positioning as crucial in relating to and being respectful of the family's own resources and sensitivities.…”

Theoretical Reflections on Rites of Passage in a Hungarian Therapeutic Community

“…Yet, in Ronald's case, his storytelling may be understood as taking place in a special kind of timespace or chronotope-a concept introduced by the Russian language theorist Mikhail Bakhtin to characterize how we act and experience pace and place in different settings (1981,1986). Originally used to describe how time is materialized in space in all narratives, this notion later has been employed in a variety of ways to examine how patterns for organizing time and space produce meanings, evoke feelings, and define experience in, for example, different film genres (Chanon, 2000), schooling situations (Lemke, 2004), and the dynamics of family therapy (Seltzer and Seltzer, 2004). It is however in relation to life in communities, therapeutic or otherwise, that Bakhtin's initial thoughts about chronotopes have particular relevance.…”

Relational Drawings in Couple Therapy

“…This protocol needs the therapist to be present in the session as a person, connecting with the clients as a warm and active responsive listener. This means moving ROBER / 131 back and forth between positions of identification and empathy, on the one hand, and positions of curiosity and outsideness (Seltzer & Seltzer, 2004), on the other. He/she is open to what surprises him/her (Rober, 2005), because what surprises opens space for new questions and new meanings to emerge in the session.…”