Abstract
This article aims to present and discuss an innovative narrative social work theory, and to demonstrate its effectiveness through a case study of liberating a client who was dominated by HIV/AIDS discourse. The innovative construction entails four components: basic theory, clinical theory, intervention skills, and a measurement method. The selected basic theory, derived from Foucault's theory of the power of knowledge as well as Bateson's theory of difference, is aimed at theorizing a process that could help an individual to construct a new story by activating a force of differentiation in the vertical and horizontal feedback loops. Clinical theory, which provides a practical framework for problem solving, was formulated as the generation of a difference within the circular process of horizontal and vertical feedback loops. This article identifies a set of intervention skills and their effective application for generating a difference in a strategic direction. Circular questions are considered as key skills for generating a difference, while the categorization of each skill indicates a strategic application. The measurement method is theorized using modified Bales' theory to demonstrate the dynamics of the transformation process. Three-dimensional graphs are used to visualize the activation of the force of the difference.
Highlights
This article presents an innovative narrative social work theory, illustrated through a concrete and successful case study of a client infected with HIV/AIDS through homosexual intercourse
The first component entails the basic theory for conceptualizing a process that can help a person to construct a new story by activating a force of differentiation
The measurement method applied in this study presents an activation of the differentiation forces in the target sequence, comparing pre- and post-intervention
Summary
This article presents an innovative narrative social work theory, illustrated through a concrete and successful case study of a client infected with HIV/AIDS through homosexual intercourse.This innovative narrative social work approach comprises four components. One skill needed to liberate a client is externalization: helping the client to objectify the restricted mechanism by which the dominant story operates Their definition of narrative, discourse, and story is vague, and the theoretical framework that explains the co-generational process between a specific transaction process in daily life and a narrative comprising discourse and story is not clear. In this article, Bateson’s theory of difference is adopted as a second relevant theory to explain this transformative process; the principle of transformation is to generate a difference in the transaction It enables a detailed explanation of the micro-processes of a transformation, whereby individuals are shaped by the force of the dominant cultural discourse. Bateson’s theory can help a person to create a force in the micro-processes that can liberate him or her from the force of a dominant story within his or her social–ecological system
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