"I feel so lost, Doc...."

An interview — and an imagined session — with narrative therapist Harry Rieckelman.

Harry Rieckelman

INTERVIEW:

NOTES:

Harry Rieckelman is a psychotherapist who lives and works in Bethesda, Maryland. He’s also the founder of the Institute for Narrative Therapy.

I wanted to talk with Harry for three reasons:

• I’m fascinated by narrative therapy, which is an attempt to understand human personality and human identity as a story: We are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

• Harry once told me that “a good story is better than a bad story, but no story is better than a good story.” Which is certainly a counter-intuitive thing for a narrative therapist to say.

• If narrative is useful for the construction of personality and identity, then is it also useful — necessary, even — for the health and cohesion of a community, a society, a nation? (I’d argue that one reason the European Union is currently imploding might be the fact that the EU never came up with a coherent narrative for itself.)

Thanks very much to Harry for taking the time to chat with me — and for his endless patience and good humor.