Re Vision

"Once upon a time, everything was understood through stories....The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said that 'if we possess our why of life we can put up with almost any how.'...Stories always dealt with the why' questions. The answers they gave did not have to be literally true; they only had to satisfy people's curiosity by providing an answer, less for the mind than for the soul." --From Chapter 1 Each of us has a story to tell that is uniquely personal and profoundly meaningful. The goal of the modern therapist is to help clients probe deeply enough to find their own voice, describe their experiences, and create a narrative in which a life story takes shape and makes sense. Emphasizing the vital connections among personal experience, family, and community, the authors of this provocative new book explore the role of narrative therapy within the context of a postmodern culture. They employ the interactional dynamics of family therapy to demonstrate how to help people deconstruct oppressive and debilitating perspectives, replace them with liberating and legitimizing stories, and develop a framework of meaning and direction for more intentional, more fulfilling lives. Blending scientific theory with literary aesthetics, Story Re-Visions presents a comprehensive collection of specific narrative therapy techniques, inventions, interviewing guidelines, and therapeutic questions. The book examines the development of the postmodern phenomenon, tracing its evolution across time and disciplines. It discusses paradigmatic traditions, the meaning of modernism, and the ways in which the ancient, binding narratives have lost their power to inspire uncritical assent. Methods for doing narrative therapy in a destoried world are presented, with suggestions for meeting the challenges of postmodern value systems and ethical dilemmas. Numerous case examples and dialogues illustrate ways to help people become authors of their own stories, and each of the last four chapters concludes with an appendix that provides additional information for the practicing clinician. Detailing ways in which a narrative framework enhances family therapy, the authors describe how the therapist and client may act together as revisionary editors, and present techniques for keeping the story re-vision alive, well, and in charge. Finally, the book examines re-vision techniques for clinical training and supervision settings, with discussion of how therapists may help one another create stories about their clients, as well as themselves. Accessibly written and profoundly enlightening, Story Re-Visions is ideal for family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and anyone else interested in doing therapy from a narrative stance. It is also valuable as supplemental reading for courses in family therapy and other psychotherapeutic disciplines.

How different would mythological narratives be, if women voiced their perspectives? Amidst great wars, superhuman heroes and their ‘glorious’ victories, is there a place for women? Are ‘great wars’ limited to armed conflicts between armies of men on the battlefields? Do women have their own battles before, after and beyond the confines of wars in the epic narratives of India? Both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have integrated into our social and cultural fabric, and permeated into the myriad layers of life across genres and media. It is a common practice to revisit mythological landscapes and realign the lenses to look at them afresh from different perspectives. Re-renderings often bring in multiple interpretations that are creative and critical, adding variety and currency to the original narratives. Vision and Re-vision traces the lives of seven marginalized women from revisionist works against the central motif of war. It follows the pursuits of Ganga, Surpanakha, Uruvi, Sita, Urmila, Satyavati and Draupadi to understand their struggles and victories as women. Analyzing textual spaces provided to women, it explores their marginalized voices and their resistance patterns. These, in turn, establish new narratives of subversion and reclaim the voices and identities of women from the margins. A sound theoretical framework enables a comprehensive understanding of feminism and its distinct Indo-centric identity.

In his latest groundbreaking book, the author examines the history of psychoanalysis from a resolutely independent perspective. At once spellbinding case histories and meticulously crafted gems of scholarship, Rudnytsky's essays are "re-visions" in that each sheds fresh light on its subject but they are also avowedly "revisionist" in their scepticism towards all forms of psychoanalytic orthodoxy. Beginning with a judicious reappraisal of Freud and ranging in scope from King Lear to contemporary neuroscience, the author treats in depth the lives and work of Ferenczi, Jung, Stekel, Winnicott, Coltart, and Little, each of whom sought to "rescue psychoanalysis" by summoning it to live up to its highest ideals.

Pastors around the country continue to look for the program, the book, or the sermon series that will turn their plateaued or declining churches around. But what if the answer to revitalizing the church was closer to home? According to trusted church leadership expert Aubrey Malphurs and veteran pastor Gordon E. Penfold, it is. They believe that pastors themselves are the key. In a time when many pastors are jumping from church to church every two or three years as they search for the "right fit" where they can "make a difference," churches are suffering from a lack of sustained leadership from pastors with a viable vision for ministry. In Re:Vision, Malphurs and Penfold take pastors through a process of discovery and self-evaluation designed to help them re-envision their role, create a culture for positive change, and recruit people to come alongside them as helpers and encouragers. Multiple appendices offer self-diagnostic tools and surveys to help pastors assess their strengths and weaknesses for more effective ministry.

Revision & Resistance reveals the story of Kent Monkman's monumental 2019 diptych commission mistik?siwak (Wooden Boat People) for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book celebrates Monkman's historic achievement with essays and contributions by today's most prominent voices on Indigenous art and Canadian painting.