Postmodern Theory in Practice: Narrative Practice in Social Work

Abstract

Rooted in postmodernism and social constructionism, narrative theory as applied to social work bridges the gap between clinical work and social justice theory. This chapter discusses the relationship between narrative therapy, social justice and social work practice. A narrative approach focuses on the interpretation and meaning people ascribe to their experiences through their identities, lives and problem stories. Counterviewing problem stories enables the nurturance of counterstories that disrupt and challenge the unhelpful influence of dominant social discourses which reinforce social inequity and oppression in people’s lives. Counternarratives resist the discursive mechanisms of power within stories and disrupt their hegemony. The postmodern influence on narrative therapy is seen in White and Epston’s (Narrative means to therapeutic ends. W.W. Norton, New York, 1990) interpretation of Foucault’s approach to knowledge, power, subjectivity and discourse which provides central underlying assumptions in the creation of narrative therapy and its dual processes of deconstructing problem stories and reconstructing preferred counternarratives. I will explore the theoretical foundations of narrative work and provide a mental health case example to demonstrate how stories can be deconstructed through counterviewing and how preferred counternarratives can be facilitated.