Books / Systemic & family
Maps of Narrative Practice
Michael White’s 2007 book describes narrative practice through different kinds of therapeutic conversations, illustrated with case material and diagrams.
Book details
Author of listed edition: Michael White
Edition: First edition, hardback (2007)
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Edition year: 2007
Language and origin: English (Australia / United States)
ISBN: 9780393705164
Form and genre: Treatment Manual & Clinical Guide
Level: Intermediate
Historical era: 1980–2009 · Evidence-Based, Trauma & Integrative Era
Covers: Externalising and re-authoring conversations; The statement of position map for externalising conversations; Re-membering conversations and definitional ceremonies; Conversations highlighting unique outcomes; Scaffolding conversations and case examples
APA 7th reference: White, M. (2007). Maps of narrative practice. W. W. Norton & Company.
What it is
Maps of Narrative Practice is a 2007 clinical guide by Michael White. Its publisher describes the book as an account of narrative practices White developed and taught.
What it covers
The contents list six kinds of conversation: externalising, re-authoring, re-membering, definitional ceremonies, conversations highlighting unique outcomes, and scaffolding. A library description reports that case material, transcripts and diagrams illustrate these conversations. In the externalising chapter, White describes an inquiry that begins by naming a problem in terms meaningful to the person, then considers its effects, the person’s evaluation of those effects and their reasons for that evaluation. He illustrates this with conversations and diagrams.
Practice and context
White presents ways to organise questions and conversations in narrative practice. The publisher and library descriptions are not evidence that a particular conversation produces a specific clinical outcome.
Limits of this entry
This entry draws on the publisher’s description, library catalogue records and an excerpt from the externalising chapter. The complete book and the paired anthropological chapter were not read. Detailed claims about other chapters and the effects of particular techniques need further checking.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: Life History Among the Elderly: Performance, Visibility, and Re-Membering (Barbara Myerhoff, 1982)
Reference: Myerhoff, B. (1982). Life history among the elderly: Performance, visibility, and re-membering. In J. Ruby (Ed.), A crack in the mirror: Reflexive perspectives in anthropology (pp. 99–117). University of Pennsylvania Press.
An anthropological chapter on life history, performance and re-membering. Its relationship to White’s later use of these ideas is not evaluated in this entry.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: The book contains chapters on externalising, re-authoring, re-membering, definitional ceremonies, unique outcomes and scaffolding conversations. (The contents list was checked against a graduate institute library record; the complete book was not read.) [Source 2: Pacifica Graduate Institute Research Library. Maps of narrative practice. Catalogue record.]
Claim 2: White’s externalising map includes defining a problem in the person’s own terms, mapping its effects, evaluating those effects and explaining that evaluation. (The published excerpt includes the chapter’s four inquiry categories; the complete book was not read.) [Source 4: White, M. (2007). Externalizing conversations. In Maps of narrative practice. W. W. Norton & Company. Chapter excerpt hosted by Dulwich Centre.]
Sources and inspection notes
W. W. Norton & Company. Maps of narrative practice. Publisher record.
Supports: Author, publisher, 2007 date, hardback ISBN and publisher description; the complete book was not read.
Pacifica Graduate Institute Research Library. Maps of narrative practice. Catalogue record.
Supports: First-edition bibliographic details, six chapter titles and a description of case material, transcripts and diagrams.
Supports: Bibliographic reference to the paired chapter; the complete chapter was not read and its influence on this book has not been verified.
Supports: Excerpt describes and illustrates the four inquiry categories of the externalising statement of position map; other chapters were not reviewed.