Obituary
Michael White
›› Innovative Australian psychotherapist who developed narrative therapy in the 1980s
- Jane Speedy and Martin Payne
- The Guardian,
- Tuesday June 17 2008
The
Australian psychotherapist Michael White, who has died aged 59 from a
heart attack, was one of the most innovative practitioners of his
generation. Together with a New Zealander, David Epston, he developed
narrative therapy, which draws on the work of postmodern philosophers
such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.
Instead of employing traditional concepts of motivation, unconscious processes or
categories of psychological damage, this approach proposes that we
perceive our lives as a continuing series of stories. By encouraging
the recollection of significant, forgotten details, it seeks to
generate more nuanced accounts of people's lives, enabling them to
consider wider ranges of possibilities for the future.
Born in Adelaide into a traditional working-class Australian family, Michael
left school at 16 with no initial thought of higher education. After an
unsuccessful spell in a draughtsman's office, he realised that his
strength lay in listening to people and putting them at their ease. So
he worked as a probation welfare officer before training as a social
worker at the University of South Australia, where he met his wife,
Cheryl. He often cited the influence of the significant women in his
life, particularly Cheryl, their daughter Penni, his sisters Suzanne
and Julienne, and his mother Joan.
After graduating in 1979, he worked as a psychiatric social worker at Adelaide children's
hospital until, four years later, he and Cheryl established the Dulwich
Centre as an Adelaide base for pursuing their interests in
psychotherapy and community work. Cheryl also set up Dulwich Centre
Publications, which continues to host conferences and disseminate its
literature around the world.
Michael developed narrative therapy with Epston throughout the 1980s, and the international
interest in their work led to the publication of the widely translated
Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends (1990). From then till the
publication of his Maps of Narrative Practice (2007), Michael travelled
extensively and published prolifically, clarifying and extending his
ideas. Although his work has become most usually associated with the
externalisation of problems and the catchphrase "the person is not the
problem; the problem is the problem", Michael's "community assignments"
perhaps best illustrated the social and relational ethics of his work.
These ventures forged new connections within communities devastated by
trauma, through the telling and retelling of stories. The most recent
of these gatherings took place in 2007 at the invitation of the
indigenous (Native American) Six Nations and more recently arrived
Caledonia communities of Ontario, Canada. Two groups of 55
representatives each came together to tell stories of long-standing
violent conflicts over land rights. Shared stories of longing for peace
and of hopes for different kinds of lives for their children emerged
from this carefully documented process, forming new foundations for
working together in the future.
Michael's work was sustained by a profound sense of social justice and of the power relations
between peoples. He regularly used income from more affluent countries
to finance projects in developing and war-torn regions such as the West
Bank city of Ramallah and Rwanda, as well as to respond to requests
from the indigenous communities of Australia, towards whom he felt a
strong commitment and debt. He was delighted when Kevin Rudd, the new
Australian prime minister, made a formal apology to the aboriginal
population for the past wrongs of successive governments last February.
Rudd singled out the "stolen generations" of thousands of children who
were forcibly removed from their families.
Michael loved the Australian way of life and spent as much time as he could outdoors,
swimming or mountain biking in the Adelaide hills. He also had a
reputation for speed (and recklessness), whether flying small planes or
driving cars.
In 2006 Michael and Cheryl separated, and at the start of 2008, with characteristic enthusiasm, Michael set up the
Adelaide Narrative Therapy Centre. He died unexpectedly, full of
energy, in a new relationship with his partner Sarah, and had many
plans, not least for writing more about his concept of the "absent but
implicit" aspects of people's stories.
Michael had a quiet and unassuming manner, a dry and irreverent wit and a knack for putting
people, particularly children, at their ease. He is survived by Sarah,
his daughter, mother, sisters and brother Paul.
Michael White, psychotherapist, born December 29 1948; died April 4 2008
This is a reprint of an article published in the Guardian Newspaper www.guardian.co.uk
