Story Re-Visions

This book is an excellent resource for clinicians, educators, students, and others interested in enhancing their skills and knowledge of narrative therapy. --Carolyn S. Carter, School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

This book provides the reader with an excursion through the fascinating territory of the narrative metaphor, and visits many of the sparkling developments in the therapeutic practices that are informed by this metaphor. The authors successfully bring together the ideas of others with their own contributions through a variety of forms, including the erudite exposition of ideas, practical and informative maps of therapeutic processes, and examples of therapeutic dialogue. There is something for everybody here. Quite some achievement! --Michael White, B.A.S.W., Dulwich Centre, South Australia

If stories are central elements in the creation and reconstruction of persons, as Parry and Doan suggest, then Story Re-Visions: Narrative Therapy in the Postmodern World comes as close to being an `instructions manual for remaking human nature' as any volume I've seen. --George S. Howard, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, and Director, Laboratory for Social Research, University of Notre Dame

Parry and Doan have achieved a glimpse of what I believe to be the future of psychology....Proceeding simultaneously from the molar and the molecular, they amass a knowledge base that is uniquely and multidimensionally informed. As a biologist, I have learned that the human animal has evolved a `sense' of story; as a psychologist, I study the functioning of this `story-sense' as a cognitive mechanism with an inherent architecture; and as an anthropologist, I marvel at the innate ability of these humans to 'chant their world into being.' At each of these levels, I recommend the story of Homo narratus Parry and Doan have chanted into being. 'Must reading' for the therapist and the researcher alike. --Mike Knight, Ph.D.

Alan Parry and Robert E. Doan have taken another step toward inviting therapists to extend their thinking toward ideas and practices new to our field. This literary book combines ideas from the narrative metaphor, as well as from other approaches, to provide many possibilities for our consideration. --Victoria C. Dickerson, Ph.D., and Jeffrey L. Zimmerman, Ph.D.

Story Re-Visions is an eloquent argument for the narrative tradition as the appropriate domain for therapy. This argument is situated in what the authors refer to as 'the postmodern context.'...Theirs is a 'radical' narrativism, one in which the 'story' itself is externalized; their work 'abounds with challenges to the single, dominant story.' However, this is merely the prelude to bringing postmodern down to clinical earth with a wealth of clinical vignettes, transcripts and samplers of questions....This is a nice mix of postmodern and a practice relevant to it, with a nod going to the latter. --David Epston, MA, C.Q.S.W., Family Therapy Centre, Auckland, New Zealand

I found this book enormously useful for my own thinking, practice, and teaching.... It is...an integrative narrative, combining another cut at the complexities of narrative ideas with a comprehensive, practical presentation of a coherent body of perspectives and tools for practice. It is chock full of 're-storying' ideas for postmodern story-oriented therapists and maybe even for those still wedded to the self psychologies. --Joan Laird

Consistent with their postmodern approach to therapy, Parry and Doan have provided the field with a postmodern book. It can be likened to a World Wide Web page on the Internet that is written in hypertext: It has numerous cross-references both within and outside of the text that the reader can pursue depending on his or her scientific interests. The book is full of ideas and interventions that one can use in a variety of clinical situations. The beginning therapist will welcome it, as the book will provide a clear template for incorporating a narrative approach into their existing work as well as providing a broad range of readily adaptable techniques. It offers therapists a snapshot view of two talented clinicians who clearly have much to offer to this field, and the field could benefit from a more extensive elaboration of their thinking and work. --William D. Lax, Contemporary Psychology
- The book is full of ideas and interventions that one can use in a variety of clinical situations. The beginning therapist will welcome it, as the book will provide a clear template for incorporating a narrative approach into their existing work as well as providing a broad range of readily adaptable techniques. --Contemporary Psychology, 9/11/1994