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DOCUMENT RESUME IR 018 393 ED 408 980 Gray, Jacqueline W. AUTHOR Story Re-Visions: Tales for the Future. TITLE Jan 97 PUB DATE 6p.; In: VisionQuest: Journeys toward Visual Literacy. NOTE Selected Readings from the Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (28th, Cheyenne, Wyoming, October, 1996); see IR 018 353. Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) Descriptive (141) Reports PUB TYPE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *Autobiographies; Childhood Needs; *Early Experience; *Life DESCRIPTORS Events; Mental Health; Narration; Oral Tradition; *Personal Narratives; Psychotherapy; Reminiscence; *Story Telling ABSTRACT Over the years many different psychologists and psychoanalysts have found value in the concept of the self-narrative, or the "life story." Narrative thought demands an appreciation of the particulars of time and place and a focus on multidimensional understanding of events, people, emotion, and motivation. By using the life story or self-narrative, one can explore the past, examine its effect on the present, and determine how lessons learned can be related to planning for the future. Writing one's life story gives spaciotemporal structure to the separate events and expectations by sequencing and determining relevance. Individuals often identify a "life theme"--affective and motivational characteristics, values, beliefs, and interpretations of events that are repeatedly played out in the interactions in a person's life. As stories are retold (in psychotherapy sessions, for example), they undergo changes because people use earlier versions to review experiences and allow alterations in how they interpret events. By introducing these ideas to children as they learn about stories and storytelling, "re-visioning" experiences could deconstruct dysfunctional ideas before they become too ingrained in their behavioral road, making change of direction more difficult. Edutainment options from "Choose Your Own Adventure" books and video or computer games that drive home the consequences of decisions and give children opportunities to revise their story and improve their choices is one way to incorporate the art of story re-telling. (Contains 24 references.) (AEF/BEW) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ftice of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Story Re-Visions: Tales For The Future Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. by Jacqueline W. Gray Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Abstract Stories are habitations through which we live. The glasses through which we see and interpret the world are constructed through our life stories. The lenses are the prescription iI that focuses our individual experiences. When using an inaccurate lens, things look blurry, distorted and, many times, scary. The theory, construction and re-vision of life stories provide a basis for the interpretation of past events and future expectations. This paper looks at enrichment of our storied lives through color, spontaneity, diversity and creativity cause a new level of excitement. It explores how being unique can capture the greatest prize- -the self. Introduction While artists began to look at the world in a new way, the therapeutic world When dealing with people, Freud and others since, have noticed the human's continued with the dichotomy of cognition and emotion. describe As post-modernists begin inclination themselves _ to looking at the many selves, they interweave narratively as a means to know and identify those threads each self into the tapestry of themselves. Freud found the word self too emotion, cognition and other constructs nebulous and used instead the German that become the total "sal" word seek, this best translates into English Hermans' Valuation Theory (1992) as soul, but English translations of Freud's work used mind instead. Jung and Rogers describes the self as an organized process of He believed the individual's valuation. moved modern psychology more toward the idea of self and the development of a meanings of events are articulated in a self- narrative, or life story, that is organized and single selfhood (Parry, and Doan, 1994). re-organized over time. Because there are The terms cognitive and post-cognitive emotional reasons an individual dwells on have been used to distinguish between some part of their life story and neglects modernist and postmodernist, as well as other parts, person the a becomes epistemological and ontological, to construct motivated storyteller. the between division the two "eras" Bruner (1986) described two modes of (McHale, 1992). McHale discusses poet, propositional and thought, thought composer, performing artist Dick Higgin's Propositional thought narrative thought. concept of cognitive and post-cognitive with consists of logical argumentation aimed at the following questions: convincing one of some abstract, concept- independent truth; a logicoscientific and The cognitive questions: paradigmatic aim at theoretical, formal 'How can I interpret this world of which I interpretation a of general abstract am part? And what am I in it?" paradigm for gaining understanding. (Asked by most artists of the 20th century, Narrative thought, conversely, presents Platonic or Aristotelian, until around 1958.) interpersonal concrete and human situations to demonstrate their particular The post-cognitive questions: The story mode validity. requires "Which world is this? What is to be imagination, 'an understanding of human done in it? Which of my selves is to intention, and an appreciation of the do it?" r(-) "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY particulars of time and place. Narratives (Asked by most artists since then; quoted in Alice D. Walker focus on people and on the cause of their CD McHale, 1992, pp. 32-33.) 0 291 2 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES EST COPY AVAILABLE 4: INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." plannings, our rememberings, even our and goals, their actions: intentions, loving and hating, are guided by narrative of Properties subjective experience. plots." He went on to explain that moral character, setting and action are central to illuminated particularly choice by is the narrative mode (Vitz, 1990). understanding the relevance of a given Kelly (1955) contributed the prototypic moral issue to a person's understanding of model of psychotherapy with the use of their life as a story. The life story or self- narrative reconstruction in his work with narrative can either be a self-constructed Kelly's the client's self-characterizations. story of one's life, often including bits and perspective has become integrated into pieces of various other stories, or an almost to postmodern approaches psychology. literal acting out of life according to a Constructivist psychotherapy is described as in which narrative model a postmodern epistemology Narrative provides a more complete and proactive, self-organizing features of human multidimensional understanding of events, knowing is emphasized (Neimeyer, 1993). emotions and an individual's life script than From this view one is an active participant just relating the paradigmatic aspects of the in creating their understanding and view of By using this narrative model situation. the world. one can explore the past, examine it's effect Vitz (1990) supplied a psychological basis on the present and determine how all that for the use of stories in teaching moral has been learned can be related to planning development. Language as used in teaching for the future. is usually in the written form of a text, without much emotion, limited in image Life Stories value, and generally context-free, to express Howard (1991) described identity as a life of paradigmatic truth the universal When the story which individuals begin constructing, propositional knowledge. late in consciously or unconsciously, thought is introduced as fact there is little Like stories, identities may adolescence. the left and emotional involvement, forma narrative a assume "good" hemisphere of the brain primarily used. coherence and consistency or they may be When telling or writing a story, language informed. The life story model of identity takes on a heavy emotional and imaginistic suggests how anyone seeking to know the meaning, usually carried by the intonation whole person may apprehend identity in This and words with associated images. narrative terms. adds depth and flesh (Cataldi, 1993) to the At an early age, children ask parents story by incorporating syncretic thought. endless questions. The questions generally Syncretic thought is associated with general "How can I fit into the generic form: and recognition emotional processing, understand (make sense of) these puzzling affective language (Vitz, 1990). Syncretic aspects of my experience?" The repeated analog cognition and thought utilizes questions attempt to get a story that will knowledge by relating the affective with the give them a context and a culture in a form Vitz (1990) proposes a more cognitive. answer make sense that the makes complete and evolved learning experience the For example, (Howard, 1991). created by using situational truth presented question, "Why do birds fly?" is an attempt in a narrative format such as Aesop's to get a narrative (story) response that Fables and current real moral dilemmas. makes sense at the child's developmental Morality is grounded in personal emotional level To answer in short statements then experience and understanding should be provokes more questions until the need for evident from personal virtues (Maclntyre, narrative context is satisfied (McAdams, 1981). Mair (1988) described stories as 1985). According to Sarbin (1986) narrative is habitations. These narrative responses are our lives because "...our important in 292 3 BEST COPY MAMMA how children make sense of their lives and Many times individuals expect their lives develop their view of the world. to be like a trip down a super highway Along with those provided by parents, narratives straight, smooth and fast If the road is come in the forms of cartoons to full length bumpy, we encounter potholes or detours, feature movies that portray conflicts of or if we take a side trip it is interpreted as good and evil, issues of life and death, as Years later, when re-membering failure. well as the role of love and hate in human past events, it is usually the eventful trips we are most likely interactions (Bettelheim, 1976). to recall. These one's Writing story life depth and gives add diversions the color, spaciotemporal structure to the separate dimension to our experiences because we events and expectations by sequencing and have revised the script turning it into an determining relevance (Howard, adventure. Whether those rough roads Maerlender, Myers, and Curtin, include obstacles of hardship and adversity 1992; Perhaps the most Hermans, 1991). through issues of race, class, gender, age or important information people convey when other aspect, they play a part in who the their write they or history, life individual is, how they use the events and autobiography, is their life theme (Howard, how they re-member the incident (Moffitt A life theme or script et aL, 1992). and Singer, 1994). includes the plan, values, beliefs that are repeatedly played out in the interactions in Story Re-Vision process of telling and Through the a person's life (Berne, 1972). Life stories retelling one's self-narrative are tailored toward or revealing an of autobiography, understanding and the affective a that construct questionnaires, role playing, behavioral motivational of characteristics the storyteller are revealed including their measures, projective measures, etcetera are hard pressed to accurately assess. beliefs and values (Hermans, 1992). As the When asked to write their life story, the story is retold, it undergoes changes. The individual utilizes their values, individual usually does not start with "I was beliefs, born on September 2, 1951 to Harold and experiences and affect with respect to their Peggy WestfahL" personal development, life Individual's identify crisis, class, significant events or times of their life upon gender, and other bumps and barriers along the road to re-view the experience and which to focus. The events they choose and allow changes to take place in how they how those events are interpreted reveal the interpret the event. As the previous individual's perspective of life, in general. Are they achievers who select stories of interpretation is deconstructed, taken apart their successful events? Are they victims examination, it for a new allows interpretation to be constructed, rebuilt who always see someone else as responsible and taking advantage of them? Whatever from new information and interpretation resulting in altered beliefs and affect events are chosen the color and dimension of the emotions and thoughts that make (Hermans, 1992; Parry and Doan, 1994; those events significant help the reader to White and Epston, 1990). By utilizing story re-vision an individual not only examines know more about the individual than if they only stated the facts. Themes will emerge the past, but applies it to the present, and from the its .= impact upon the stories projects whether religious future affiliations, racial or ethnic ties, gender (Hermans, 1992). When my children were small they read orientation, professional identity, or family tradition and history (Parry and Doan, called books Your "Choose Own Adventures ". These books were read and 1994). It may also reveal how an individual interacts with others, solves problems and re-read time and again because every few overcomes obstacles. pages a choice needed to be made for the 293 away the fear when he was confronted by character. Depending upon which choice It took more than dangerous situations. they made the book directed them to turn simple solutions for each of them to find to a specific page. Each time the book was the characteristics deep within themselves. read it became a different story because Similarly, when individuals' write their life the decisions could be changed. stories, they may seek simple and magical The original life story can be examined solutions. Through the Re-Vision process for constraining rules or restrictions that they may see deep within themselves the limit the individual's ability to explore their very thing they thought they lacked. Biases and prejudices can be world. This is a re-vision of a familiar story. reexamined. A person's life theme will Gardner identified the fallacies of the become more evident with the re-telling of original story and provided a re-vision that the story since those aspects of events will retained the facts from the original story re-visions the through continued be and constructed new interpretations within By reevaluating the (Hermans, 1992). those parameters. events as they appear in the original story they may begin to see strengths and may not Therapeutic Implications have that accomplishments A rising of intervention in form challenges, the without developed psychotherapy is the life story, which is a adventures, obstacles, or difficulties that condensed psychobiography that focuses on brought them from the past to the present. the role of the symptomatic complaint in Hermans (1992) indicated that stories the client's life-journey (Omer, 1993). It is change over time with the re-telling and re- not the life story that is so new as the use vision especially during times of disruption of story re-vision to reconstruct the life whether circumstantial or developmental. history and change the client's view, or interpretation, of the events (Parry and An Illustration Doan, 1994). The next step involves the In the story of "The Wizard of of client projecting into the future to construct Tin the Dorothy, all (Baum, 1956), their new view of these past Woodsman, the Scarecrow and the Lion ways experiences can help the client reach their need to do was find the Wizard and their In Richard personal goals (Hermans, 1992). problems were solved. Gardner's (1980) story of "Dorothy and the Lizard of Of we find that the simple The Preventionist Application By implementing these ideas with children solutions to problems the Wizard provided storytelling, as they learn about stories and did not really solve any of their problems. re-visioning experiences could provide a Dorothy returned to Kansas to find she still ideas means to deconstruct dysfunctional needed to deal with the sheriff about her before they become in deep ruts in their dog, Toto. The Scarecrow had a diploma, behavioral road making change of direction but he returned to the farm where he'd This approach also allows more difficult. worked to find another scarecrow doing his date for re-visiting these stories at a later old job and no one willing to give him the when the individual has more information chance to do a job that took a brain just and and experience to further re-view The Tin because he had a diploma. implement more re-vision for the future. Woodsman returned to his home to find that having something ticking on his chest did not make him feel any more loved. Conclusions that Through the story re-visions events Just showing his "heart" to others did not problems, may have been viewed as The make them love him more either. or obstacles nits, potholes, burdens, Cowardly Lion proudly showed his medal re- difficulties over the course of time are for bravery and courage, but it did not take 294 EST COPY AV LARUE 5 constructed revealing the adventure, personal constructs. New York: Norton. excitement, humor, color, and depth that Maclntyre, A. (1981). After virtue. Notre can spur strength, growth and learning. Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press. These re-visions allow us to ponder the Mair, M. (1988). Psychology as scenes from new directions and perspectives storytelling, International Journal of Personal that provide that insights were not Construct Psychology, 1, 125-138. previously believed as possible. The McAdams, D.P. 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