The small and the ordinary: the daily practice of a postmodern narrative therapy.
In this article, I contrast assumptions of a modernist worldview and a postmodern worldview as they relate to clinical practice. Two exercises are described that help therapists develop insight into and practice with the kind of thinking that is consistent with a postmodern narrative clinical practice. Particular attention is paid to the ways that even the small and the ordinary--single words, single gestures, minor asides, trivial actions--can provide opportunities for generating new meanings. Five concepts that I routinely use in my professional and personal life and that are consistent with a postmodern narrative practice--discourse, externalizing the internalized discourse, exceptions, power as the means to produce a consensus, and characteristics of narrative--are illustrated.
Weingarten
K
K
Family Institute of Cambridge, Newton Centre, MA 02159, USA. kweing@aol.com
D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D005086:Existentialism; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D017008:Negotiating; D010358:Patient Participation; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012650:Self Disclosure