The healing effects of storytelling: On the conditions of curative storytelling in the context of research and counseling

Abstract

Conducting a biographical-narrative interview is already a kind of psychological intervention. In this article, I will reflect on this. I will introduce the narrative-interviewing method and discuss the following: What processes are prompted for narrators when they tell their life story and for the interviewer guiding the conversation in a narrative-biographical style? What are the chances offered by this method of directing a conversation for setting off initial healing processes, and what are the risks and dangers involved? These questions are pursued, in particular, in the context of research interview-sespecially in the context of my interviews with survivors of the Shoah and their children and grandchildren-but also in the context of counseling. I will also discuss the method's limits in conversations with people experiencing acute life crises.