Evolving Ideas about Narrative: Re‐editing the Re‐editing of Family Mythology

My 1979 paper described family mythology as a combination of the family's beliefs about itself (myths) and stories and legends that illustrate those beliefs. My ideas evolved to encompass family scripts which prescribe what is to be done about family beliefs. Rewriting family scripts and re‐editing family mythology are seen as different punctuations of the same recursive therapeutic cycle. Narrative is also explored from an attachment research perspective, in which the coherence of narrative is shown to be associated with secure attachments, and hence coherence is a suitable goal for family therapy. A ‘family therapy story’ is told about our oldest tradition, that of always having to be ‘pioneers’, which cuts us off from new advances in research in other fields. Some interdisciplinary research in which the author was involved illustrates the value of collaboration between different perspectives.