On April 8, 2022, the Center for Buddhist Studies at Fo Guang University hosted an expert dialogue lecture as part of its "Buddhism and Psychotherapy" research project. The event, held at Yunshuixuan, featured Professor Huang Su-fei, a supervisor of the Taiwan Narrative Therapy School, who presented on the topic "A Brief Introduction to Narrative Therapy: Based on Social Constructionism and Phenomenological Psychology." The session was moderated by Prof. Guo Chao-Shun, General Director of the research project and Dean of the College of Buddhist Studies. Approximately 100 faculty members and students from the Department of Buddhist Studies, Department of Psychology, and those interested in narrative therapy attended either in person or online.
"Narrative Therapy" involves a narrative therapist "listening" to a client "telling" "stories." Why, then, is it not called "Story Therapy"? At the outset, Prof. Huang clearly positioned the stance of narrative therapy: it concerns the concrete lived experiences of specific individuals—their "Life Stories." These life stories are influenced by mainstream social values, which construct our knowledge, truth, and even self-identity, shaping the frames through which we view events and ourselves. Therefore, "what makes you who you are" is considered more important than "who you are."
Prof. Huang introduced the "epistemological position" of narrative therapy, which is rooted in postmodernism, adheres to social constructionism, and draws from phenomenology. Using Eastern and Western films about "unmarried pregnant women" as examples, she illustrated how women and men are subjected to the "taken-for-granted" values of dominant/mainstream external cultures. These values construct different subjective stories, such as "Why am I humiliated?" versus "How lucky I am." Although these are not absolute truths, they are powerful enough to influence whether the subsequent life outcome is a tragedy or a happiness. Furthermore, before life experience is shaped into language, there exists a "pre-linguistic" experience. When we "speak" our stories, the language used points to the thing we want to say, but the act of assigning vocabulary also possesses a "concealing nature"—for instance, saying "I am unhappy" might simultaneously conceal "I am angry." Therefore, narrative therapy requires "double listening" to hear both what is revealed and what is concealed by language.
In addition to introducing the philosophy, worldview, and therapeutic view of narrative therapy, Prof. Huang discussed the methods and techniques of a narrative therapist. From the epistemological position of narrative therapy, the therapist asks questions that help the client understand they are the "camera operator" (director) of their own life. Using methods such as "externalization" and "story branches," the therapist breaks the client's subjective, habitual "single story," granting the client the absolute "right to choose" to re-connect their experiences, allowing the life story to be "constructed" by the client themselves.
After "listening" to Prof. Huang’s "telling," Dean Guo connected and resonated the significance of narrative therapy with Buddhism, including: 1. The self is a verb, which corresponds to the concept of Non-self (Anatta); the self is constantly redefined within causes and conditions. 2. Buddhism long ago proposed that "the world we recognize is constructed by language," which Buddhism calls "Provisional Designation" (Prajñapti). 3. Regarding the "pre-linguistic" realm, Buddhism discusses the intermediate zone between when a thought has not yet arisen and after it has arisen; Zen Buddhism uses methods like the "stick and shout" to break conceptual thinking and the continuity of constructed thought. Responding to these connections, Prof. Huang walked into the language of Buddhism with the language of narrative, noting: "Being" exists in the cracks between concepts. The impermanence of life breaks existing concepts, revealing that the true human situation is one of having nothing and being unable to control. It is only when impermanence arrives that one truly enters the scene of life.
Following this construction of a scene between Narrative and Buddhism, Dean Guo asked a final question: "What is the relationship between the de-pathologization of narrative therapy and illness/suffering? Where does narrative therapy believe suffering comes from?" Using the Buddhist term "suffering" (Dukkha) to enter the language of narrative, Prof. Huang responded with the story of "The Psychologist in a Wheelchair," offering a definition of health: Health means your life is not swallowed up by (sickness or suffering).
Narrative therapy performs a philosophical stacking of the speaker, listener, experience formation into concepts, and action within the "language" of the story itself. Through deconstruction and reconstruction, it allows the client to rewrite their life story, generating diverse choices and actions. This perhaps shares similarities with the core Buddhist assertions of the combination of causes and conditions and the flow of karma, moving toward the existence of Non-self and a Pure Mind, transforming consciousness into wisdom, and leaving suffering to attain happiness. Listening to this dialogue, one realizes that the connection of experience is a manifestation of continuous time. The arrival of the time for this dialogue event does not mean the cessation of experiential connection; rather, it allows the concealments of language within the activity to be gradually revealed in the future. This event concluded in the space between what was said and what remained unsaid.
"Narrative Therapy" involves a narrative therapist "listening" to a client "telling" "stories." Why, then, is it not called "Story Therapy"? At the outset, Prof. Huang clearly positioned the stance of narrative therapy: it concerns the concrete lived experiences of specific individuals—their "Life Stories." These life stories are influenced by mainstream social values, which construct our knowledge, truth, and even self-identity, shaping the frames through which we view events and ourselves. Therefore, "what makes you who you are" is considered more important than "who you are."
Prof. Huang introduced the "epistemological position" of narrative therapy, which is rooted in postmodernism, adheres to social constructionism, and draws from phenomenology. Using Eastern and Western films about "unmarried pregnant women" as examples, she illustrated how women and men are subjected to the "taken-for-granted" values of dominant/mainstream external cultures. These values construct different subjective stories, such as "Why am I humiliated?" versus "How lucky I am." Although these are not absolute truths, they are powerful enough to influence whether the subsequent life outcome is a tragedy or a happiness. Furthermore, before life experience is shaped into language, there exists a "pre-linguistic" experience. When we "speak" our stories, the language used points to the thing we want to say, but the act of assigning vocabulary also possesses a "concealing nature"—for instance, saying "I am unhappy" might simultaneously conceal "I am angry." Therefore, narrative therapy requires "double listening" to hear both what is revealed and what is concealed by language.
In addition to introducing the philosophy, worldview, and therapeutic view of narrative therapy, Prof. Huang discussed the methods and techniques of a narrative therapist. From the epistemological position of narrative therapy, the therapist asks questions that help the client understand they are the "camera operator" (director) of their own life. Using methods such as "externalization" and "story branches," the therapist breaks the client's subjective, habitual "single story," granting the client the absolute "right to choose" to re-connect their experiences, allowing the life story to be "constructed" by the client themselves.
After "listening" to Prof. Huang’s "telling," Dean Guo connected and resonated the significance of narrative therapy with Buddhism, including: 1. The self is a verb, which corresponds to the concept of Non-self (Anatta); the self is constantly redefined within causes and conditions. 2. Buddhism long ago proposed that "the world we recognize is constructed by language," which Buddhism calls "Provisional Designation" (Prajñapti). 3. Regarding the "pre-linguistic" realm, Buddhism discusses the intermediate zone between when a thought has not yet arisen and after it has arisen; Zen Buddhism uses methods like the "stick and shout" to break conceptual thinking and the continuity of constructed thought. Responding to these connections, Prof. Huang walked into the language of Buddhism with the language of narrative, noting: "Being" exists in the cracks between concepts. The impermanence of life breaks existing concepts, revealing that the true human situation is one of having nothing and being unable to control. It is only when impermanence arrives that one truly enters the scene of life.
Following this construction of a scene between Narrative and Buddhism, Dean Guo asked a final question: "What is the relationship between the de-pathologization of narrative therapy and illness/suffering? Where does narrative therapy believe suffering comes from?" Using the Buddhist term "suffering" (Dukkha) to enter the language of narrative, Prof. Huang responded with the story of "The Psychologist in a Wheelchair," offering a definition of health: Health means your life is not swallowed up by (sickness or suffering).
Narrative therapy performs a philosophical stacking of the speaker, listener, experience formation into concepts, and action within the "language" of the story itself. Through deconstruction and reconstruction, it allows the client to rewrite their life story, generating diverse choices and actions. This perhaps shares similarities with the core Buddhist assertions of the combination of causes and conditions and the flow of karma, moving toward the existence of Non-self and a Pure Mind, transforming consciousness into wisdom, and leaving suffering to attain happiness. Listening to this dialogue, one realizes that the connection of experience is a manifestation of continuous time. The arrival of the time for this dialogue event does not mean the cessation of experiential connection; rather, it allows the concealments of language within the activity to be gradually revealed in the future. This event concluded in the space between what was said and what remained unsaid.
Prof. Huang Su-fei, Supervisor of the Taiwan Narrative Therapy School, delivering the online lecture "A Brief Introduction to Narrative Therapy: Based on Social Constructionism and Phenomenological Psychology."
Moderated by Prof. Guo Chao-Shun, General Director of the research project and Dean of the College of Buddhist Studies.
Approximately 100 faculty members, students, and individuals interested in narrative therapy from within and outside the university participated in the event, joining both in person and online.