This qualitative action research was activated at the junction between three
sites of operation of modern power: the site of the woman in the family,
religious and cultural power discourses and the professional discourses of
therapy. Using an action research design for this study focused the research
on reaping benefits in real terms for the research participants. The researcher
applied a postStructuralist, feminist and narrative approach to the
phenomenon of failed personhood as manifested in the lives of two White
Afrikaans women. Narrative therapy methodologiElS, steeped in a religious
studies ethic were valuable guides on the therapy-as-research journeys,
ensuring the exposure and deconstruction of dominant cultural and religious
power discourses.
In the course of the therapeutic and research journeys, various narrative
therapy methodologies were used with positive effect on the life world of the
participants. These methodologies included the externalisation of problems
and the discovery of unique outcomes that constitute alternative, preferred life
stories that contradict problem-saturated life stories of failed personhood. The
research participants engaged in individual and communal conversations, relanguaging
their self-narratives and religious narratives as part of the coconstruction
of their preferred identities of moral agency and hope.
Support networks were created for the research participants, Mara and Grace,
to strengthen their new self- and religious narratives and to dislodge the
power of the normative cultural and religious discourses of rugged
individualism. In one instance, the researcher incorporated the healing power
of South African bush veld, by inviting a group of women on a series of
expeditions into the wilderness as part of Mara's journey. fn Grace's
narrative, we utilised the modern technologies of the internet to connect her
with a virtual response team and the Anti-Anorexia/Anti-Bulimia League.
Storytelling and reflecting conversations formed the basis of the therapy-asresearch
processes. The research participants extended therapy
conversations beyond the therapy room, by actively participating in their
therapy-as-research journeys. In line with narrative approaches, the
researcher encouraged them to honour their skills and knowledges on their
journeys: Mara extended her therapy by making resistance quilts while Grace
assimilated her art, poetry and resistance writing into her healing process. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/1553 |
| Date | 30 June 2003 |
| Creators | Viljoen, Hester Josephina Isabella |
| Contributors | Krüger, J.S. (Jacobus Stefanus), 1940-, Landman, Christina |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (231 leaves) |
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