History, conversation and event: three elements of the therapeutic conversation

Abstract

Narrative and Dialogical therapies have introduced concepts and techniques derived from theories of Narration and Conversation in our therapeutic arsenal; but they have focused basically on past stories and conversations guided by those. In this paper we postulate that the therapeutic history, the history not-yet-lived is still the one that is oriented towards the future based on the events that occur during the therapy itself. The Logic of the Narration and the Argumental Logic of the Conversation are the tools available to the therapist to situate themselves before the Events that take place during therapy and before the Echoes that awaken in other conversations that take place during the course of it, to assist in the process of finding the best possible ending for the story given the circumstances. In the present paper these Narrative and Conversational logics are developed and illustrated with the help of clinical material.