An Analytical Study of Narrative Therapy in Brian Friel's Narrative Plays

The narrative-therapy approach was first proposed by Michael White and David Epston. This approach focuses on treatment through the narratives of people's lives and considers their problems as dominant in the way they look at narratives and cultural discourse, and emphasizes that "one is not a problem but a problem is a problem”. Narrative therapy is a six-step process that includes: problem-solving, problem-naming, externalization, cultural discourse, connecting single consequences, and alternative narrative. The Irish playwright Brian Friel often focuses on the influence of society and the dominant cultural discourse of people's lives. Based on his experiences, Friel has used being a teacher and a priest and has created narrative works in his plays using a narrative-centered perspective. The commonalities between the theories of narrative-therapy and Friel's plays are examined in this research, and reveal the process and elements of narrative-therapy such as narrative expression of problems, cultural discourse and the use of language.
The present study points to the narrative and validity of the narrative and then introduces the theory of narratives. Molly Sweeney and Healing are examined from the perspective of narrative therapy. By examining the stages of narrative therapy in these two plays, this research then expresses that there are no problems in the lives of people, and whatever the problem is described is the false narrative of people, whose narrations can overcome the problem. The mind understands the experiences of people through narrations. Traditions are an integral part of people's lives, the problems are our experience of false traditions, and narrative therapy is a new method for treating and ignoring people's problems. Problems and whatever the norm is introduced is all the product of society and the identity of individuals is meaningful and shaped through communication with others. Moreover, narratives are divided into two general categories namely “diegetic” or “diegesis”, and “mimetic” or “mimesis”. However, in a different classification, narratives are narrated in a first or third-person style. Typically, the diegetic texts narrate the story from the first-person’s point of view and in a soliloquy manner pertaining to the personal experiences of individual. This is the style with which the two of Friel’s plays are written and it is the style analyzed in this research. Reading this approach, the reader realizes that, narrative is a scheme by means of which human beings give meaning to their experience of temporality and personal actions. It is the primary scheme by means of which human existence is rendered meaningful. Here, diegetic plays are studied with a narrative approach and with narrative therapy regard. A detailed assessment is performed in this research on Friel’s narrative plays by taking a closer look at narrative therapy process and using a descriptive-analytical approach.