Narrative Psychology: Identity, Transformation and Ethics

“Narrative Psychology: Identity, Transformation, and Ethics is a good read for those well versed in narrative psychology. … I suggest the book for … those familiar with narrative psychology and with the philosophy of science upon which it rests. … the book facilitates deep thinking about the very nature of the self and the narrative science that focuses on it.” (Ed de St. Aubin, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 62 (9), February, 2017)

“Vassilieva weaves these various theories together smoothly, providing a thorough assessment of the ramifications of each approach. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.” (D. J. Winchester, Choice, Vol. 54 (4), December, 2016)

“Narrative inquiry continues its abundant flourishing across the social sciences. All too seldom, however, do we find responsible reflection on these efforts - their roots, tensions, potentials, and shortcomings. Julia Vassilieva's work is an invaluable contribution to just this kind of dialogue. With clarity and caring discernment, she singles out three major lines of endeavor and submits them to penetrating analysis. Not only is our understanding enriched, but there is salutary and significant challenge here for charting the future of inquiry.” (Kenneth J. Gergen, Senior Research Professor, Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, USA and author of The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life,  Social Construction in Context, Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community)

“In this book, Vassilieva provides a wide-ranging and thought-provoking address to narrative subjectivity, narrative research and practice, and narrative ethics. Valuably and unusually, she brings North America, European and Australasian approaches into dialogue with each other. An accessible, beautifully written and insightful book.” (Corinne Squire, Professor of Social Sciences and Codirector of the Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London, UK and author of  HIV in South Africa: Talking About the Big, Doing Narrative Research (edited with Molly Andrews and Maria Tamboukou, Sage, 2008) and HIV in International Perspective (edited with Mark Davis, Palgrave, 2010))

This book provides the first comparative analysis of the three major streams of contemporary narrative psychology as they have been developed in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. Interrogating the historical and cultural conditions in which this important movement in psychology has emerged, the book presents clear, well-structured comparisons and critique of the key theories of narrative psychology pioneered across the globe. For example in the US by Dan McAdams and his followers, who have developed a distinctive approach to self and identity as a life story over the past two decades; in the Netherlands by Hubert Hermans, whose research on the ‘dialogical self’ has made the University of Nijmegen a centre of narrative psychological research in Europe; and in Australia and New Zealand, where the collaborative efforts of Michael White and David Epston helped to launch the narrative movement in psychotherapy in the late 1980s.

Dr Julia Vassilieva is a lecturer in the Arts Department at Monash University, Australia. She has published widely in the fields of psychology and interdisciplinary cultural theory.