The narratives of people who suffer from depression

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the narratives of depressed and non-depressed people in the light of the principles of a narrative approach to therapy which were provided by a supposition matrix. A qualitative research approach, specifically a multiple case study method was used, consisting of interviews with ten people who were suffering from depression and ten who were not. The research discovered that depressed participants found it more difficult to find alternative meanings in their life narratives, and used more negative generalisations. Their past, present and future narratives seemed more unhelpful and they seemed less aware of their wealth of lived experience. They were more adversely affected by the limiting narratives of significant others and they did not cope as well with subjugating socio-political stories. While both groups showed an abundance of unique outcomes, the depressed participants seemed unable to author these into helpful alternative narratives. The research suggested further that the narrative approach to therapy could be helpful in therapy with depressed people, especially helping depressed people to translate unique outcomes into alternative narratives. The narrative approach to therapy also seemed to be holistic in nature, and depression seemed to be a remarkably complex phenomenon.