Nimble and Courageous Acts: How Michael Became the Boss of Himself

Abstract

Collaboration, re-storying, privileging insider knowledges, deconstruction, and not-knowing are among the foundational practices of narrative therapy. In this paper, a narrative therapist collaborates with her past clients to retell the story of a 9-year old's resistance to what is called Asperger's Disorder in the psychiatric world. First, the story is told from the mother's perspective. Next, the Asperger's diagnosis is deconstructed and traditional courses of treatment are considered in juxtaposition to a post-modern approach as the story is told from the vantage of the family therapist. Then, the client, now 13, recounts in an interview with the therapist, his thoughts about therapy and what he has carried forward from this experience.