Publisher's Synopsis
Explore the tensions and tenderness between fathers and sons in this masterpiece of narrative psychology!"We live in a story-shaped world," as the editors say, and Between Fathers and Sons: Critical Incident Narratives in the Development of Men's Lives shows how the stories we construct come to shape our perceptions of the world and of ourselves. The incidents recounted here are more than just moving, funny, or painful stories of fathers and sons. Each is a myth that helped form the authors'social and moral identity. This blend of feeling and intellect, story and analysis makes Between Fathers and Sons a work of art as well as a work of psychology. The contributors--many of them pioneers of narrative therapy--bring unique insight to bear on their own stories. Using a broad array of narrative forms, from the soliliquy to the multiple narrator, they explore and analyze themes of silence, mystery, respect, sports, self-reliance, and longing for continuity.In the stories you will find in Between Fathers and Sons:
- a father's disappointed silence is transformed as it resonates through four generations
- a Korean immigrant faces the differences between his ideals of fatherhood and his son's American view
- a father-son fishing trip ends with the biggest fish ever--or no fish at all
- betrayed by his stepfather, a boy seeks guidance from stories of his dead father
- a Baptist preacher helps his son make an agonizing choice
- a grown man's memory of a childhood event gives him new insight into his father's identity and their relationship
Between Fathers and Sons is a landmark volume in father-son relationships and in narrative therapy. It is destined to become a classic in the field.
