This book argues that narrative practice does not have a coherent formulation of
personhood in the way one finds in other fields, such as psychoanalysis and cognitive-
behavioural therapy. It examines the post-structural principles that underpin narrative
practice, which make available powerful conceptual tools for theorizing the person.

Narrative psychotherapy theory draws heavily on the works of philosopher Michel Foucault
and his idea that a person is constituted by discourse. In his book, clearly written to an
audience of other narrative therapists, Michael Guilfoyle seeks to establish a clearer account
of the idea of a person in narrative theory. Guilfoyle struggles to find the origins of agency in
the texts of Foucault and Michael White, the founder of narrative psychotherapy, arguing,'this
is the point in which we (the narrative therapists) find ourselves: constitutionalists with an …