ANZJFT Volume 20 Number 1
March 1999Contents
| Editorial - Anzac Day, April 25th | Brian Stagoll |
| Life Review and Heroic Narrative: Embracing Pathology and Attention to Context | Simon G. Kennedy |
| Complex Responses to Trauma: Challenges in Bearing Witness | Amaryll Perlesz |
| Limits and Possibilities of the Postmodern Narrative Self | Carmel Flaskas |
| Family Therapy: Out from Behind the Hero Narrative | Paul Gibney |
| The 'Unfashionable' John Byng-Hall: Narrative, Myths and Attachment | Glenn Larner |
| Home Visiting Family Therapy for Children at Risk | Cathie Huston and Ken Armstrong |
| Ecologically Correct Research | Simon Kennedy |
| Conference Reports | |
| A Recursive Correspondence: Britain to Germany and Back | John Hills and J?rgen Hargens |
| Reviews |
Abstracts & Sample Articles
Editorial - Anzac Day, April 25th
by Brian StagollView article. [PDF format - 79KB]
Life Review and Heroic Narrative: Embracing Pathology and Attention to Context
by Simon G. KennedyView article. [PDF format - 190KB]
Holding the Man (Conigrave, 1995), chronicles a fifteen-year relationship between Timothy Conigrave and his partner, John, and the process of their coping with John's impending death from AIDS related illness. In this article I discuss the autobiography as a naturalistic example of the therapeutic method of life review. What result would have emerged if a narrative therapist had assisted in the writing of the book? Based on my friendship with the protagonists, I would have argued for a less negative picture of the author, but Tim's aim seems to have been to represent the relationship in a dramatic form, with the author embracing his own pathology, and the imbalances and unfairness in their relationship. I suggest that employing methods which externalise pathology to elicit 'the heroic narrative' may have disregarded these goals. I highlight the need to recognise and understand individual pattern and context, and raise alternative less interventionist positions as appropriate for clients involved in such reviews of their lives.
Complex Responses to Trauma: Challenges in Bearing Witness
by Amaryll PerleszView article. [PDF format - 215KB]
This paper explores variability in family and individual response to trauma. The discussion draws on results from a study that investigated family adaptation to traumatic brain injury (TBI) and also refers to literature on the Holocaust. Outcomes to trauma are complex and it is argued here that hope can coexist with despair (within families and within particular individuals). The challenge for therapists in bearing witness1 to testimony following significantly traumatic events is also explored.
Limits and Possibilities of the Postmodern Narrative Self
by Carmel FlaskasView article. [PDF format - 167KB]
The task of theorising the self has been of little interest historically in systemic therapy, yet becomes more interesting in the postmodern turn to the narrative metaphor and social constructionist ideas. Within this frame, the self is theorised as relational, fluid, and existing in narrative. The 'postmodern narrative self' counters modernist assumptions of self as an autonomous and fixed 'internal' entity, and brings with it theory and practice possibilities. However, any theory also brings limits, and this paper explores the limits of the central ideas of the postmodern narrative self. Through questioning and discussion, an argument is made for holding a dialectic in our thinking about the relational and autonomous self, for acknowledging very real boundaries on the fluidity of self, and for thinking of narrative as one way of knowing self, rather than exclusively constituting the 'being' of self.
Family Therapy: Out from Behind the Hero Narrative
by Paul GibneyView article. [PDF format - 124KB]
Schools of family therapy have been highly selective in their presentation of the theory/practice nexus. Family therapy's method of teaching (the infamous workshop format) has hampered family therapy's growth as a practice and academic discipline. An inadvertent, unhelpful legacy of Gregory Bateson has been that lesser scholars have aped his capacity to draw on other fields of knowledge without his rigour, nor his propriety. Family therapy's cavalier dealings with bodies of knowledge and its reliance on miraculous case studies has resulted in the bypassing of individual suffering. The heroic narrative that has dominated family therapy has precluded other styles of stories for therapists, theorists and clients. Family therapy has been dominated by the myth of the hero, with its accompanying motif of the puer eternus (the eternal youth). Family therapy has been forever reinventing itself, forever the 'new kid on the block'. This fascination with newness has interfered with family therapy's capacity, at times, to consolidate its genuine value as a therapeutic entity.
The 'Unfashionable' John Byng-Hall: Narrative, Myths and Attachment
by Glenn LarnerView article. [PDF format - 161KB]
John Byng-Hall would not want to be called a 'hero' or 'pioneer' of family therapy, nonetheless that is what he is. He has acted as a major figure in the development of the profession in the United Kingdom since the 1960s, co-founding the family therapy course at the Tavistock clinic, where he was a Consultant Child and Family Psychiatrist until he retired in 1997. As an author and editor of internationally recognised books and papers on family scripts, myths and legends, narrative and attachment, John has bridged systemic, attachment, psychoanalytic and narrative approaches to family therapy. Like his ancestor Admiral Byng, John's own narrative challenges the existing political order, which in current family therapy involves conformity to Postmodern fashion and denigration of things historical.
Home Visiting Family Therapy for Children at Risk
by Cathie Huston and Ken ArmstrongView article. [PDF format - 119KB]
Home visiting has a long history in the areas of health and welfare (Baldock, 1990: 121). Early intervention through home visiting programs has been found effective in preventing abuse and neglect in many countries including the USA (Olds, 1992), Ireland (Johnson, 1993) and Europe (Cox, 1993). The success of these programs lay in their effectiveness in reducing social isolation, improving parenting skills and enhancing self esteem. This paper reports on the role of family therapy in home-based early intervention for families with newborn infants.
