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In this article, we explore Paul Ricoeur's meditations on language, memory, and forgiveness as a means to better understanding ethical concerns of narrative construction in family therapy. These meditations highlight that narrative construction is fundamentally a relational process and therefore encourages a relationally responsible form of liberating narrative. The article includes a review of current perspectives on ethics in narrative therapy, an overview of Ricoeur's narrative theory, and a discussion of the implications of Ricoeur's theory for family therapists.
Narrative therapy theory has been inspired and shaped by Michel Foucault's theory of power and knowledge (White & Epston, 1990). Foucault's work high-- lights how social power forges the knowledge that people use to interpret their everyday lives (White & Epston, 1990). Using these ideas, narrative therapists have developed a therapeutic approach that challenges the dominant knowledges that restrict clients from successfully addressing life concerns. Narrative therapy's inherent sensitivity to sociopolitical concerns has encouraged many therapists to actively address moral and ethical issues such as social inequality and discrimination (Freedman & Combs, 1996; Zimmerman & Dickerson, 1996).
Although narrative therapy has expanded therapeutic dialogue about moral and ethical concerns, the emphasis has been on sociopolitical issues. In this article, we hope to extend the present dialogue and more directly address the inherent ethical nature of narrative construction by introducing narrative theory that is derived from the work of Paul Ricoeur (1984, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1996), a hermeneutic phenomenologist. Ricoeur's narrative theory expands the present discourse in narrative therapy in primarily two ways: (a) specifically detailing the central role of ethics in narrative construction and reconstruction, and (b) providing narrative models that detail narrative construction at a local, interpersonal level, thus offering a model that is more applicable to couples and family therapy. In addition, Ricoeur's work offers a model for facilitating forgiveness through narrative exchange, and it highlights new perspectives on the role of the therapist in narrative therapy.
To introduce Ricoeur's ideas to family therapy we have divided the article into three sections. In the first, we provide a context for Ricoeur's narrative theory by briefly highlighting narrative therapy's current discussion of ethical concerns. In the second section, we present Ricoeur's narrative theory, which he develops through three models: language, memory, and forgiveness. Finally,...