>Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 03:03:14 -0500 (EST)
>X-Sender: dravotas who-is-at facmailsrvr.hu.mtu.edu (Unverified)
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>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
>>>