The Narrative Facilitation of Recovery. The Application of Narrative Theories in a Group Therapy for Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

The application of narrative theories in non-literary disciplines has become a popular practice in the last decades. Yet, narratological application in the fields of psychology and phenomenological psychiatry usually disregards the findings of postclassical theories of narrative. In this essay, we will present a trans-disciplinary method for a group therapy for persons with schizophrenia through combining the theories of narrative psychology, psychiatry, and postclassical narratology. The main techniques to be applied in the therapy concern personal narratives and everyday conversations, but we are also interested in narrative intelligence in general. In a cooperation between the Department of English and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Szeged we have also carried out a pilot study. In this research, we see an opportunity to re-examine concerns of (cognitive) narratology such as the nature and functions of narrative in human cognition.