Rewriting Self-Narratives: The Therapeutic Process

Abstract Narrative constructivism places emphasis on how therapy can be used for rewriting patients' stories through the construction of more adaptive narratives, assisting patients in overcoming their conflicts and tackling the world's complexities. In this article, we shall use the analysis of a clinical case to show how a patient put together her set of narratives using the tool of Self-Investigation. We shall then show how the set changed after six months, as expressed in a second Self-Investigation. Finally, we shall describe the process by which this change took place, through the qualitative microanalysis of the diaries written by the patient during psychotherapy and the description of what was happening at the same time to the therapeutic relationship. It emerges that the patient's negative emotions diminished in intensity, and dependent characters, suffering from guilt feelings, gave way in the texts to narratives in which the self acts independently and without feeling it is harming others if it accomplishes its own objectives.