Therapist as Reader, Client as Author: A New Model - A Therapeutic Relationship

Chronic suffering plays an important role in the current concerns of health professionals. The recent narrative medicine trend indicates the relevance of a new rapport between providers of services and the persons and the families involved. We investigate a possible analogy between models of relationship, as described by fictional texts analyzed by Umberto Eco in his "Six Walks in the Fictional Woods", and stories developed by the narrative therapist and the person whose story is in the center. The analogy applies to the relationship therapist-person in narrative therapy and the relationship author - reader in a fictional text. We indicate a metaphoric presentation of this relationship, as it is depicted in the science fiction novel “Roadside Picnic” by brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatski. The resulting thematic categories are: speed and completeness of the unfolding story, examples of metaphors in the story: the guide and the means of transportation, the audience of the story, the relationship between outside (packaging) and inside (core) of the story, the search for a particular meaning for each listener/reader, the usage of story, the story final destination, etc. The analogy underlines aspects of the narrative competence required for the mental health professional or caretaker, so that he or she can create a space of story enrichment and meaning-making in cooperation with the patient.