ABSTRACT
Foucault has been highly influential in pointing out that in any given culture there can be seen to be dominant narratives or discourses. In the early days of psychotherapy, for example, the dominant narratives had been that problems were due to individual factors or disorder. Constructivist approaches have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that family members may disagree, sometimes violently, about their explanations and narratives. These have been seen as essentially interpersonal disagreements or struggles over the punctuation of events. Family life can be seen as consisting of unique sequences of events, feelings, and actions. How these events are interpreted may not be unique but should be seen in terms of the dominant narratives available. Families in therapy demonstrate both uniqueness and commonalities a sense of their experiences being individual and different but also as referenced to dominant narratives. It is also important to be aware of the fact that the dominant narratives may also be contradictory and conflicting.
