Beyond narrative to performed conversation - ('in the beginning' comes much later)

Author(s): Holzman, L.

Journal/Book: J Constr Psychol. 1999; 12: 325 Chestnut St, Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA. Taylor & Francis Inc. 23-40.

Abstract: What is the radical and liberating potential of narrative, discursive, performative, and other language-oriented psychologies and psychotherapies? How can if be realized? Using an activity-theoretic framework (in which Lea Vygotsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein are taken as pre-postmodernists), we suggest that the value of these therapies, influenced in varying ways by postmodern thinking, lies in their becoming postscientific. In our view, their great strength is that they explain nothing and need no explanation. In contrast, many recent discussions of language-oriented, social constructionist and constructivist approaches focus on their explanatory power as alternative epistemologies, thus missing the emancipatory power of storytelling and narrative as performed activity (performed conversation).

Note: Article Holzman L, E Side Inst, 500 Greenwich St, New York,NY 10013 USA

Keyword(s): PSYCHOLOGY; WITTGENSTEIN

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