Dominant story, power, and positioning

Abstract

From a narrative perspective, how we understand our life and tell stories about our lives is shaped and defined by cultural discourses. During these tellings, some stories become dominant while others become silenced. As well as reflecting cultural discourses, these local stories also reflect the positions embedded in these discourses. In this present study, we analyzed the course of four therapy sessions attended by Victoria and Alfonso. We focused on how dominant stories are constructed in these sessions and how power is distributed in the positions entailed by these dominant stories. Two dominant stories were constructed in the case of Victoria and Alfonso. In the course of the couple therapy, the two dominant stories evolved such that both Victoria and Alfonso were able to accept the positions they had taken or been given in the story. The cultural discourses referred to in Victoria and Alfonso’s therapy were in line with the idea of psychotherapy as a talking cure and the dominant discourse about the values attached to the romantic relationship in north-western society. In couple therapy, it is essential that both clients are able to narrate their experiences and that the therapist accepts these stories. Psychotherapy and therapists also refer to particular discourses that may structure what stories are accepted as dominant in therapy. The power of these normalizing truths may leave other possible discourses marginalized. Reflexivity and acknowledgement of power issues are required of the therapist in order for the therapist to be able to bring alternative, silenced and marginalized stories into the therapy conversation.