Jewish metaphors in narrative practice with people resisting addiction — Robert T. Jury

This paper presents examples of the use of Jewish metaphors in narrative practice with people resisting addiction. Deconstructing conversations using the multiple meanings of Israel as a metaphor made space for identifying new meanings and deconstructing social discourses. Re-authoring conversations drawing on the metaphor of t’shuvah supported people in moving from totalising stories of addiction and relapse to multi-storied narratives of resisting addictions. Conversations externalising Yetzer HaRa and Yetzer HaTov supported the discernment of multiple voices and values in relation to doing the next right thing. The Rashi question opened new ways of seeing the absent but implicit in the questioning that can accompany early recovery. Using the daf as the basis for therapeutic documents helped to transmit Jewish ways of knowing as Jewish people in recovery told their preferred stories.