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Paul Grobstein's picture

Psychotherapy/education parallels and ...

There are lots of pieces of this essay that resonate with me. The most obvious is that narrative therapy speaks quite directly to some of the issues raised in Models of Mental Health, particularly the need to have greater attention paid to both stories and to the ability of individuals to play an active/creative role in their own therapeutic processes.

What intrigues me even more is the parallels between the underpinnings of narrative therapy and ongoing thinking about what constitutes effective education in science (and elsewhere). The characterizations of the role of therapist and client are very similar to those of teacher and student in an "open-ended transactional inquiry-based" classroom envrionment (see also Emergent Pedagogy and Story Telling in Three Dimensions). Maybe not only are there things for educators to learn from therapists (and vice versa) but there is something common underlying both activities?

My guess (not suprisingly) is that there is such a common thing, in particular the brain and its story telling capabilities and constraints (see From Complexity to Emergence and Beyond and Social Organization as Applied Neurobiology). What's intriguing here of course is that neurobiologists have something to learn from therapists and educators (and vice versa), that stories play an important role in brain function.

On a more personal level, I identify with Sarah's characterization of her career path and choices (see This Isn't Just My Problem, Friend). I recognize the discomforts she has experienced associated with a career in science and differ only on the question of whether "For modern science to progress, the concept of an absolute truth must be perpetuated". An alternative is to encourage scientists too to recognize the central importance of story, in science as in other human activities (see Revisiting Science in Culture: Science as Story Telling and Story Revision and Science as Story Telling in Action)

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