Crises have a Pre-Narrative Character

We often lack an understanding and language for the difficult experiences when we are hit by a crisis. We are overwhelmed by them and can find it difficult to put them into words. As Finnish Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychotherapy at the University of Jyväskylä Jaako Seikkula, based on his work with Professor of Psychiatry Yrjö Alanen, suggested about acute, first-time psychoses in his pioneering Open Dialogue method from the 1980s. If the stress is great enough, people can experience reactions in the form of psychotic phenomena within our five senses: sight, hearing,smell, taste and touch. In addition, there are often delusions that, despite their unlikely logic, are typically linked to the hallucinations. Seikkula's Social Constructionist point is that through joint network conversations with everyone involved, including the psychotic person, a story/narrative is gradually created that can contain and give meaning to the psychotic experiences. If all goes well, the psychotic symptoms will diminish so that there is no need for antipsychotic treatment.

As far as I can see, the same applies to general human crises without psychotic reactions. In connection with illness, death, traffic accidents etc. Emotional, cognitive and physical experiences that you are overwhelmed by and have no language for. These can be anxiety, grief, worry, resignation, overwhelm and other reactions. Even when the reactions are not psychotic, but still violent for the individual. In my view, one way to accommodate and integrate these experiences is that the more you talk about them, the more they become familiar, canis de-dramatized and dealt with psychologically. A narrative is formed to contain and understand all the new unknown and violent events. In the Narrative spirit of Michael White, the Landscape of Meaning is created through stories. The narrative takes shape so that we can understand it, relate to it and act. And that takes time. Weeks, months, years.