Last updated:
May 28, 2004

Narrative Psychology Search

This subpage provides very brief biographical notes regarding individuals who are important theorists, researchers, or contibutors to narrative psychology, the interpretive turn in psychology and the social sciences, and the diverse influences upon narrative which this resource guide details.

Return to Theorists and Key Figures: Index
  

Taylor, Charles

Todorov, Tzvetan

Tomkins, Silvan (1911-1991)

Tracy, David
Turner, Mark

Vico, Giambattista (1668-1744)

Vygotsky, Lev S.

Wagenaar, W. A.

White, Hayden

White, Michael

White, Robert W.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1889-1951)

Wundt, Wilhelm

Tomkins, Silvan (1911-1991)

Pioneer personality researcher and theorist who proposed affect and script theory which has been increasingly influential in the fields of personality and personology. Though he received his doctorate in philosophy, post-graduate work at Harvard with Henry Murray at the Harvard Psychological Clinic led Tomkins back to psychology, his original interest, and the problem of explaining personality. He taught at Princeton, the Graduate Center at CUNY, and Livingstone College at Rutgers University. Often considered somewhat inaccessible to the general reader, his overall work was published as Affect, Imagery, Consciousness in four volumes from 1962 to 1992. Rae Carlson published a series of articles which helped explain Tomkins' script theory for a wider audience.

 Selected Bibliography: Silvan Tomkins

• See Alexander's (1992) obiturary for Tomkins for a particularly helpful review of his life.
• Short obituary in the ISPP (International Society for Political Psychology) newlettter, January, 1992.

Turner, Mark    

Mark Turner is currently Institute Professor and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. He had been in the Department of English Language and Literature (University of Maryland [UMD]) and an associate of the program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science at UMD. His undergraduate and master's degrees included majors in both mathematics and English and his Ph.D. was granted in English language and literature (his BA, MA, and Ph.D. degrees all were gained at UC Berkeley.) He has worked collaboratively with Gilles Fauconnier on the issues of conceptual blending and cognitive approaches to meaning.

Turner, M. (1996). The literary mind: The origins of thought and language. New York: Oxford University Press. "The literary mind - the mind of stories and parables - is not peripheral but basic to thought. Story is the central principle of our experience and knowledge. Parable - the projection of story to give meaning to new encounters - is the indispensable tool of everyday reason. Literary thought makes everyday thought possible." (from book jacket)

White, Michael

Though Michael White has been one of the seminal figures in founding narrative therapy, the details of his own personal narrative -- as opposed to the development of his ideas regarding therapy -- are hard to come by. White's first career involved mechanical drafting, a profession he abandoned to study social work and, particularly, family therapy. Over the years he has been resident in Adelaide, Australia where the Dulwich Centre (at which he is co-director) has served as a home base for therapeutic practice, training, and writing.

Hart (1995) proposes that White's therapeutic career developed in three phases. During Phase I--up to mid 1980s-- White was heavily influenced by the work of Gregory Bateson, his system of "Strategic Therapy," and the general notions of cybernetics. White's now familiar formulation of "externalizing the problem" arose at this time when he was predominantly concerned with helping clients in solving the major problems of their lives. The late 1980s brought a second phase to his work as White moved to articulate a more person-centered approach emphasizing meaning construction and narrative while, at the same time, developing a deeper appreciation for the social construction of reality and issues of social justice. White becomes concerned with "reauthoring lives" rather than more simply solving problems. By the beginning of the 1990s, a matured narrative therapy with strong links to many themes in postmodernism has served as White's concern. The work of Michel Foucault has served as an important influence on the later theorizing of White (e.g., White, 2002) although White adopts a more positive and possibity-filled understanding of power relationships in the modern world than Foucault did.

• Profile of White at Allyn & Bacon Family Therapy site

Selected Bibliography

Bubenzer, D. L., & West, J. D. (1994). Michael White and the narrative perspective in therapy. Family Journal, 2(1), 71-84.

Hart, B. (1995). Re-authoring the stories we work by: Situating the narrative approach in the presence of the family of therapists. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 16(4), 181-189. [Online version]

Munro, C., (1987). White and the cybernetic therapies: New of difference. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 8 (4), 183-192.

White, M. (1987). Family therapy and schizophrenia: Addressing the "in-the-corner" lifestyle. Dulwich Centre Newsletter, Spring, 14-21.

White, M. (1988). The process of questioning: A therapy of literary merit. Dulwich Centre Newsletter, Winter, 8-14.

White, M. (1989a). The externalizing of the problem and the re-authoring of lives and relationships. Dulwich Centre Newsletter, Summer, 3-20.

White, M. (1989b). Selected papers. Adelaide, Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.

White, M. (1992). Deconstruction and therapy. In D. Epston & M. White, M., Experience, contradiction, narrative, and imagination--Selected papers of David Epston and Michael White, 1989-1991. Adelaide, Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.

White, M. (1995). Re-authoring lives: Interviews and essays. Adelaide, Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.

White, M. (2000). Reflections on narrative practices: Essays and interviews. Adelaide, Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.

White, M. (2002). Addressing personal failure. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, Issue #3, 33-76.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann (1889-1951) PP

• "Ludwig Wittgenstein" Duncan J. Richter in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Biographical note [Ron Turner] 
• Lois Shawver: An Introduction to Reading Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations
  • Dr. Shawver has been conducting an online seminar in Wittgenstein's thought since 1996 on the MFTC-L listserv
  • Lois Shawver: On Wittgenstein's Concept of a Language Game

Wundt, Wilhelm Maximilian (1832-1920)

German founder of experimental laboratory psychology and advocate of Völkerpsychologie [ethno-cultural psychology]

See separate entry on Wilhelm M. Wundt