Narrative means to sober ends: Language, interpretation, and letter writing in psychotherapy and recovery

This exploratory study creates a postmodern narrative context for psychotherapy and extends these ideas to problems of alcoholism. Of particular interest is the re-authoring therapy of Michael White and David Epston and the application of their ideas to stories of addiction and trauma. The project is divided in two parts. The first tells the story of narrative and the history of the application of these ideas in psychotherapy and recovery. The second presents a discussion of narrative theory using letters and clinical illustrations from the researchers own practice and other professional and literary sources.; The review of prior work explores six areas of narrative research and study. The first locates narrative theory in a postmodern context. The second examines the narrative therapy of White and Epston, specifically their use of letters in the therapeutic encounter. The third explores the work of Roy Schafer, Donald Spence, Donald Winnicott, Christopher Bollas and the use of narrative in practice informed by psychoanalytic concepts and theory. The fourth considers contributions by family therapists other than White and Epston whose work includes and supports narrative concepts and ideas, such as the collaborative approaches of Lynn Hoffman, Harlene Anderson and Harry Goolishian. The fifth surveys current literature on narrative ideas about addiction and trauma.; The sixth and final section, reviews texts by postmodern psychoanalytic feminists, and writing on healing and recovery by authors not affiliated with any particular school of therapy. The study argues that letters and other written productions clients and therapists circulate in therapy have more in common with oral history and good literature (e.g., novels and short stories) than case histories produced in medicine and social work.; Letters were generated in the context of individual, couple, family and group psychotherapy at outpatient alcohol and drug abuse clinics, schools, inpatient substance abuse units, residential treatment, partial hospitalization, and employee assistance programs, as well as the researcher's private practice. The findings discuss how letter writing and correspondence are transforming of clients' experience of, and relationship to, their problems; and demonstrates narrative therapy's ability to expand the conceptual base of the addiction field.