Narrative Therapy: A Return to the Intrapsychic Perspective?

Abstract

In investigating narrative therapy, a development within the field of family therapy, it was found that this approach, which is informed by postmodernism, places a strong emphasis on the interpretation of the individual's subjective experience. This emphasis is consistent with an intrapsychic perspective — an earlier development in clinical psychology and psychotherapy — that is distinct from the subsequent interpsychic perspective adopted by general system theory (GST). Furthermore, narrative therapy bears some resemblance to a number of former developments within the intrapsychic tradition. Thus it appears that narrative therapy involves a return to the intrapsychic perspective. It is suggested that distinguishing between the intrapsychic and interpsychic frames of reference may help therapists in the field of family therapy, whether their choice of metaphor is narrative or otherwise, to observe and describe with even greater acuity.