A key idea in Narrative Therapy is the idea of externalization. The idea of externalization is to name the problem as separate from the person. Is the person a diabetic or is this a person with diabetes? Is the person an alcoholic or a person for whom alcohol causes trouble? Is the person a schizophrenic or a person who has the disease of schizophrenia.
People come to my office saying that they were referred for "anger management".
"What's that about", I ask?
"I guess they think I'm an angry person."
"How does anger create problems for you? When does it come up", I ask, moving to an externalized discussion.
It seems pretty obvious that a person is not his/her anger although it has often been interalized as a personality trait. Is anger something you deal with or is it something you are? If it is something you are, you are doomed to be angry for the rest of your life. This is what Michael White calls a "problem saturated story" which is one in which the problem is an intrinsic part of the person's identity. One of the most therapeutic things a good psychotherapist can do is to separate out the problem from the person. As us Narrative Therapist are fond of saying, "The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem>'
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