Problematizing the Therapeutic Potential of Narratives: A Case Study of Storytelling Events in Post-Conflict Contexts

• In Event: Current Issues in Applied Contexts: Policing, Participation, Personal Narrative, Science Communication, and Supply Chains

Abstract

Narrative communication research has often been characterized by therapeutic assumptions about narratives. I question these assumptions by examining extant narrative research in light of testimony by a participant in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Drawing on his personal narrative, and numerous re-tellings of his story in public and academic discourse, I demonstrate the importance of conducting narrative research and theorizing with an appreciation of its therapeutic potential and its ability to harm.

Author

• Courtney Cole, Ohio University