Narrative and Ethics - workshop notes

I was quite pleasantly surprised when I walked into this workshop a tad late so I do not have the name of the psychiatrist who provided this mini lecture but I was quite pleased because she was talking about actual writing. Narrative therapy is when someone is given the opportunity to tell her story, but this psychiatrist was actually talking about writing, a passion of mine as you may have guessed. She said that when you write a story you should write in the middle of the story. As I type, I wonder how I begin the stories of my three books. My first book begins at the beginning of Once upon a time? My second book, starts at the end of a career but drifts back and forth in the time to the present, years after the end of one career. My third, may start at the middle. After all a serial killer has a life before he has killed. I do break rules, but rules may have been written to be broken. Rules change with the time. However, I was very elated by this lecture, because I was having a feeling of newness in a field that can be quite repetitive. That is not bad in itself because refresher is always positive. However, I need to learn new things to feel excited about what I am hearing. The psychiatrist spoke of asking clients if they are ok with sharing their stories. If I were to actually provide a case study, I would do that, with written approval, I learned quickly in undergrad, when my favourite professor emailed me and asked for my telephone number. My telephone number rang seconds if not a second later, and I received a lecture on the importance of getting proper forms signed when representing a university. That was touchy because I was trying to get women who have been repressed and silenced in a particular country to speak to me and quite frankly they were terrified. It is sad to think that women in Canada may be afraid to speak about certain groups from their country of origin, for worry of their own survival. Yet these are changing times and evil may cross borders. Now going back to the lecture, the psychiatrist spoke of nine doctors who died with ebola disease in a small community of West Africa. She was interested in ebola. Junior doctors were in the front line with no training in Nigeria. “Wasup” to communicate. She exclaimed, “How can you have doctors who are dying? You have a facility but the doctors can’t get in for treatment. Regarding the junior doctors, the psychiatrist had been able to get all the information in writing. She said that there is no story if there is no resolution. “This can’t be this way and this is how it can be changed. That is resolution. How can we organize material? There is a time line. When did this start? She studies each doctor. Head doctor has five children; went back to school. Head doctor of hospital. (Group - different things with each other). What happened next? (time line) She organizes materials that way. Outline - She does not do that. You don’t start at the beginning. You start at the middle. When you write from the middle to the end, you will know. You can’t write anything that is that long - 1000 is a lot. You can’t use that many characters in a book. Everything else is peripheral and only a few people are main characters. Not to do - always have an active voice. Oak tree is spreading its branches - not guy got fired. Say company fired him. Complicate - Company fires him, gets depressed, gets help, sues the company. Resolution - gets his job back. Growth and change in main character. Complication - Surgeon is gambling on patient’s life. Surgeon opens brain. ……… in brain. ………. ambushes surgeon. Women dies. Resolution - Dr has to accept it. He knows there was a risk. He shared it but he did not expect patient to die. Showing - not telling - all action.