Ruthellen H. Josselson - Böcker

The best book on interpersonal relationships to appear in many years. Deeply insightful. Written with lucidity and grace. --Irvin D. Yalom, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine "Rather than merely giving advice on how to improve a marriage or other romantic attachment, psychologist Ruthellen Josselson explores eight types of relationships, from the deeply intimate to the very casual. Although some people may be most adept at one type of interaction, all such relationships are important to our growth as caring human beings, she states. Each chapter closes with a short life history of a person interviewed by the author, with particular attention paid to how the type of relationship discussed shaped that person. Visual diagrams chart these men's and women's relationships throughout their lives. Additional chapters cover how the sexes differ in the way they relate to others and the various forms that love can take. Deep and insightful, this should prove important to professional therapists as well as to those seeking a better understanding of human nature." --Publishers Weekly "Ruthellen Josselson has written this informative and engaging book to examine the 'web of connections to others' within which people 'create their lives.' . . . Josselson writes well, using many visual and spatial images. At times her writing is poetic. . . . The Space Between Us is accessible and easy to follow, in part because of Josselson's effective use of illustrative material. The book provides a good introduction to relational concepts for students or a general audience. More sophisticated readers can use it as a review and will appreciate Josselson's synthesis, new ideas, and illustrations. . . . This book is a valuable contribution to the development of a theory of relatedness that can take its place alongside a theory of autonomy. As such, the book resonates with and offers a corrective to recent critiques of individualism in American culture and in the psychotherapeutic enterprise. Clinical social workers, with their longstanding interest in person-environment transactions, will find this a particularly desirable corrective. . . . Josselson's explication of the many dimensions of 'the space between us' enriches us all." --Carol R. Swenson in Families in Society "In spite of the academic orientation of the book, it is written with great simplicity and personal voice. Understanding why we need meaningful relationships and how we can develop and nurture these relationships is an extremely important issue that teachers can share with today's students." --Emogene Fox, review in FLEducator Adult relationships define us, yet they evade realistic definition. The Space Between Us goes beyond the usual study of problem relationships to present a positive view of the human connections that form our social existence. Integrating psychological theories with rich experience, Ruthellen Josselson examines the nature and types of these relationships and develops eight dimensions of relatedness ranging from the very casual to the deeply intimate. Personal interviews animate and visual diagrams chart specific types of relationships throughout the life span. Additional chapters contemplate how the sexes differ in communication styles and the various forms that love can take. Written with great simplicity and in an engaging style, yet grounded in theory and method, this volume will appeal to a broad readership, including academics in social psychology and relationship studies, counseling and mental health professionals, and anyone interested in understanding relationships in life-span and cultural perspective.

In taking up the topic of ethics and narrative inquiry, The Narrative Study of Lives rightfully establishes itself as the site where the most critical theoretical, methodological, and interpretive work on narrative in the human disciplines is now occurring. The editor and the contributors to this volume are to be thanked for their deeply probing, forward-looking analyses of the ethical problems that arise when researchers produce narratives about persons with whom close personal relationships have been formed. --Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "All of us who work with life-history narratives are grateful to Dr. Josselson and her colleagues for moving us step-by-step toward a discipline with definable ethics and methodology, and at the same time holding up for us the incredible diversity of the field and the range of insights it offers." --Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Peripheral Visions The most significant truths about human beings are to be found in the stories of their lives. But what happens to those stories and to the people whose lives are told when a researcher seeks to make those stories known? Ruthellen Josselson has assembled an international cast of scholars to reflect on the process of life-narrative study and the ethical dilemmas that face researchers whose very mode of narrative inquiry may inevitably involve a violation of another and unwittingly lead to a sense of betrayal, shame, or guilt. In these disarmingly candid and engaging essays, narrative researchers of many different stripes talk about the morally delicate and epistemologically precarious enterprise of telling another's story. The authors raise fascinating questions about who ultimately controls the tellings, what happens to stories once they are told, and why stories influence not only the people whose lives are told but also the tellers themselves, whose own professional and personal lives may even be captured by or appropriated into the stories they are aiming to tell. This exceptional volume, the latest in The Narrative Study of Lives series, is essential for researchers, professionals, and students in research methods, including qualitative methods, developmental psychology, education, relationships, and language and discourse analysis.

The narrative approach is a relevant and enriching technique for uncovering, describing, and interpreting the meaning of experience. This collection explores the challenges of performing narrative work in an academic setting, writing about it in an ethical and revealing fashion, and drawing meaningful conclusions. This stellar collection of scholars examine such topics as how the larger construct of "personality" can be read out of life story; life narratives of reform, i.e., the transition away from delinquent behavior; the importance of cultural continuity for understanding loneliness in elderly refugees; race relations and how it relates to the meaning of the decade in which the interviewees came of age; the experience and meaning of resilience among survivors of childhood sexual abuse; and the use of narrative work as an additional approach within a larger quantitative research project. Amia Lieblich and Ruthellen Josselson provide insight into how the narrative appraoch enriches the study of the rare, the unusual, the common, and the prevalent, always searching for meaning in peopleÆs lives.

Conversation as Method is a most unique and engaging discussion among four women, all feminist scholars, who explore the different ways of knowing. The quantitative orientation of one combined with the qualitative methodology of the other three make for stimulating development of interview and exchange on how growing up communally affects relationships later on in life. All four authors have worked, independently, on issues relative to the kibbutz experience, and each brings her own perspective to this dialogue and to the active pursuit of data gathering and understanding. From the premise that knowledge is co-constructed by observer and observed and both must be clearly visible in research reports, Conversation as Method is rich social science evolving from people coming together to talk, listen, and learn from one another. Readers are also encouraged to participate in the conversation by making their own individual assessments of interpretations each author puts forth. This cutting-edge presentation is a must have for academics, researchers, and students in feminist or qualitative methodology, as well as for courses covering social/personality psychology, close relationships, developmental psychology, and family studies.

This volume is especially appealing in that it celebrates diversity and embraces disagreement. . . . The narrative scholar, regardless of her/his research tradition or field, will most certainly benefit from the diversity and depth provided in The Narrative Study of Lives. Editors Ruthellen Josselson and Amia Lieblich have admirably fulfilled their criteria of breadth, coherence, and aesthetic appeal for works included in this volume. Moreover, they have provided the necessary forum for the study of lives and life histories. We can only hope to continue the conversation in future volumes. --Journal of Contemporary Ethnography "Few questions have a longer, deeper, and livelier intellectual history than how we 'construct' our lives--and, indeed, how we create ourselves in the process. But it is a question newly alive today, for modern scholarship has brought challenging new perspectives to the study of life writing. Literary theorists, linguists, legal scholars, and even political activists are bringing new and powerful insights to bear. The Narrative Study of Lives provides a needed forum for the debates now in progress and should attract a loyal and numerous band of readers." --Jerome Bruner, New York University "For those psychologists searching for new approaches to the study of lives, this volume takes an important step toward the editors' promise of filling this gaping hole in psychology." --The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease How do we derive concepts from stories and then use these concepts to understand people? What would have to be added to transform story material from the journalistic or literary to the academic and theoretically-enriching? Addressing these and other such issues as the interface between life as lived and the social times, this group of distinguished contributors from six different countries and four different disciplines explores this emerging new field. Beginning with the philosophical framework that underlies the study of narrative, the book covers such questions as: What makes people want to preserve the stories of their past? What methods can be used to deconstruct a narrative text? Can what we learn from people's narratives of their past be used to account for their current psychological functioning? What happens if people lose their ability to narrate their story? Can people's narrative accounts tell us something about identity and its development? Useful to researchers and students of human development and behavior, The Narrative Study of Lives provides rich stories and analysis of narrative approaches to life history.

How does a narrative serve as a way for uncovering and constructing a person's identity? Does a narrative differ in any systematic way from life as lived versus life as constructed by women and men? Addressing these and other issues related to the use of narratives for understanding human lives, Exploring Identity and Gender, the second volume in The Narrative Study of Lives annual book series, focuses on narratives of girls' and women's lives as well as other identity issues. Among the issues this volume addresses are individual identity in the context of a familial heritage and how one's sense of individuality relates to their style of management. The international team of authors also explores such issues as how women construct the lives of other women in biographical work, how individuals conduct their life episodes in patterns similar to the plots of stories, how the women's movement influenced three women's adult lives, and how girls' sense of themselves changes as they move into adolescence. Students and researchers will find Exploring Identity and Gender illuminating in the intelligent application of the use of narratives.

How does context shape biography? How do language and relationships affect the development of people's work lives? An international group of scholars from diverse disciplines addresses these and other issues in this volume of The Narrative Study of Lives. They explore what it means to take narrative seriously and how an empathic stance in narrative research opens out on the dialogic self. The contributors also consider questions of how participants make meaning out of their experience in the framework of available interpretive horizons. In addition, there are sections that use narrative approaches to develop a deeper understanding of loneliness and the "coming out" process in homosexuality. This volume examines the many ways in which people interpret their experience and explores conceptual avenues to make use of these understandings in the analysis of human life. Those interested in qualitative methods, evaluation, and education research will find Interpreting Experience to be an invaluable contribution.

How does context shape biography? How do language and relationships affect the development of people's work lives? An international group of scholars from diverse disciplines addresses these and other issues in this volume of The Narrative Study of Lives. They explore what it means to take narrative seriously and how an empathic stance in narrative research opens out on the dialogic self. The contributors also consider questions of how participants make meaning out of their experience in the framework of available interpretive horizons. In addition, there are sections that use narrative approaches to develop a deeper understanding of loneliness and the "coming out" process in homosexuality. This volume examines the many ways in which people interpret their experience and explores conceptual avenues to make use of these understandings in the analysis of human life. Those interested in qualitative methods, evaluation, and education research will find Interpreting Experience to be an invaluable contribution.