Commentary on 'Reading Narratives' by Corinne Squire.

The article presents the author's views on narrative theory. Narrative theory introduces another specialist vocabulary and a new set of ideas with which to juggle. Narrative theory is eclectic with theoretical and methodological contradictions. The author believes that group analysts are experts when it comes to listening to stories. They are taught to listen to stories that appear on different levels-the current level, the transference level, the level of the part-object and the primordial level. They think about stories that are conscious to the people who tell them. Researchers have made important references to cultural narratives. Entering an analytic group is often like going to live abroad. People lose many of the things that were familiar to them. The group is not always a benign place. The group itself can become resistant to change. Everybody wish for their stories to have a happy ending; for there to be a dilemma, followed by a struggle and concluded by a resolution. Group analysts find they are left with ambiguous, open endings, with multiple interpretations in the group of what happened and why.