Narrative Therapy's Relational Understanding of Identity

Abstract

We describe how we think of identity as relational, distributed, performed, and fluid, and we illustrate the use of this conceptualization within a narrative worldview. Drawing on the work of Michael White, we describe how this relational view of identity leads to therapeutic responses that give value to interconnection across multiple contexts and that focus on becoming rather than on being. We show how a narrative worldview helps focus on the relational, co-evolving perspective that was the basis of our early attraction to family therapy. We offer detailed examples from our work of practices that help us stay firmly situated in a relational worldview that is counter to the pervasive influence of individualism in our contemporary culture.

Keywords: Identity; Individualism; Narrative Therapy; Relationship; Self; identidad; individualismo; relación; terapia narrativa; yo; 个人主义; 关系; 叙事心理治疗; 自我; 身份.