Re: Berkenkotter & Ravotas article

Carol Berkenkotter (cberken who-is-at mtu.edu)
Sat, 7 Feb 1998 09:59:27 -0400

Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 03:03:14 -0500 (EST)
X-Sender: dravotas who-is-at facmailsrvr.hu.mtu.edu (Unverified)
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To: cberken who-is-at mtu.edu (Carol Berkenkotter)
From: dravotas who-is-at mtu.edu (Dori Ravotas)
Subject: Re: Berkenkotter & Ravotas article (fwd)

Francoise, Thank you for your interest in our work. My interest in doing
this research has come from not only my training in rhetorical and
linguistic analysis but also in my felt discomfort as a clinician. The
discomfort with these accepted practices varies among psychotherapy
clinicians, as does the clinicians reactions. However, the most poignant
"resistance" practices come from a form of psychotherapy call Narrative
Therapy that was originated by Michael White and David Epstein. Narrative
therapy counters pathologizing in the practice of psychotherapy by using an
externalization process. Rather than locating the problem within the
client (or equating the problem with the client), narrative therapists
separate the client from the problem and focus on the client's abilities
and strengths as a way of dealing with the problem. Many narrative
therapists are producing psychotherapy written texts that reflect and
support this approach, including strength based texts and
client-collaborative paperwork. In fact, letters to the client and client
written narratives can become an integral part of the therapy process.
These therapists, of course, are having to find ways to deal with
institutional and accountability demands. Challenging the status quo is a
risky business but it is being done in sometimes blatant and sometimes
subtle ways.

Doris Ravotas

(I am in the process of subscribing to this list but here is my address if
you want to respond before I am officially "present". <dravotas who-is-at mtu.edu>

>>
>>Francoise, Your questions go right to the heart of the matter. Dori
>>Ravotas and other Narrative Therapists have found some ways to undermine
>>the reproductive institutional pull of the genres in which they work. I'm
>>going to e-mail your message to her and ask her t orespond because she is
>>the "insider," one who has (with a number of colleagues who are Narrative
>>Therapists) begun to articulate and practice alternatives.
>>
>>n Friday, Feb. 6, Francoise Herrmann wrote:
>>
>>>Hi Carol, Hi Doris, I had the opportunity to read your MCA article
>>>"Genre as tool in the transmission of Practice over time and
>>>across professional boundaries" which I really enjoyed and at the
>>>same time left me depressed. In line with Leigh's work on
>>>classificatory systems, but in terms of how these shape
>>>experience, and in the case study that you report people's
>>>indentity and lives, I have one question for you ( perhaps
>>>especially for Doris). How do you espcape the bind of
>>>intertextuality, the web of institutional pressures to
>>>"pathologize"? It is great to see it, to analyze it, to unveil
>>>the "dirty" secrets. but what are the alternatives? How do you
>>>escape being locked into a status quo of "pathology" and its
>>>reproduction? The therapist as researcher is a lousy one that only
>>>uses "etic" means of approaching the culture of his or her client.
>>>Where and how did you begin to change that?
>>>
>>>Francoise Francoise Herrmann fherrmann who-is-at igc.apc.org
>>>http://www.wenet.net/~herrmann
>>