Chapter 4: Complexity Meets Quantum Storytelling- Strange Attractors, Indeed

Embodied Restorying Process (ERP)

           Embodied Restorying Process (ERP) is a matter of balancing the nested-fractal-attunements of past events with anticipated future ones. It is an embodied process of nested rhythms.

"Henri Lefebre, the inventor of ‘rhythmanalysis’, recognized the coexistence of our social and biological rhythms and stressed that it is the human body which is the point of contact between those rhythms" (Vrobel, 2011: 184).

"Furthermore, this human body is the site and place of interaction between the biological, the physiological (nature) and the social (often called the cultural), where each of these levels, each of these dimensions, has its own specificity, therefore, its space-time: its rhythm. Whence the inevitable shocks (stresses), disruptions and disturbances in this ensemble whose stability is absolutely never guaranteed" (Lefebre, 2004: 81).

It is not in a linear sequence of past-->present-->future. Rather the future is arriving, and we are making that future Present, by the antenarrative bets we are placing. ERP is re-contextualizing the events nested in the past, and events anticipated in a 'moment of vision' of a potentiality-for-Being-a-whole-Self in the future (Heidegger, 1962). Future and past are reattuned into the Present, the Now of our Being-in-the-world. By acts of anticipatory resoluteness we can make choices of which potential futures we elect to act in the Present to bring into Being in spacetimemattering. Instead of the temporal perspective being in the past, or in the Now, ERP can mean a futural move away from stuck patterns of past and Present. Becoming an authentic Self is an acquired skill.

           In linear-thinking time is past-->Present-->future.  In an existential ontology of time, temporality is cyclical, not linear. The Future-->past-->Present has the Future arriving ‘ahead-of-itself’ in our BETS made on a possibility that is out of a multiplicity of possible futures. Being-futural means making sound ‘bets’ based on acts of ‘deliberation’, ‘anticipation,’ and ‘resolve.’ To make ‘bets’ more actualizing, ask the family about the contexts of involvement that brings about their potentiality-for-Being a whole-Authentic-Self.

           For Heidegger, we get enslaved by the 'they' that comes from socialization, education, military, corporations, advertising, and so on. In storytelling, the grand narratives of institutions and culture prescribe the 'they' expectations to which we are expected to adapt, to enact as role and identity. In ERP we can challenge the received 'they-self' by two radical temporal moves.

           First, we can reclaim Little Wow Moments (LWMs) of exception to the grand narratives 'they-self' prescriptions. This means instead of continuing to be enslaved by grand narrative roles and identities, we are able to move in-between the narrative sequence of events, and find those LWMs left out of the grand narrative.

           Second, we can focus on the future, on our ownmost potentiality-for-Being, choosing a path among the multitude of future paths, then taking actions to make that path come into Being. This is fractal because we are not accepting the traditional clock time, or the calendar time as the ONLY way time of events is happening. In the nested fractals, there are simultaneous, nonlinear, and future times arriving that can be attuned to our own actions, anticipations, and resolve.

ERP also involves building a support group for a self-authored 'New Story' of our ownmost authentic Self. Here are some steps in the ERP process:

Table 1: 7 STEPS of Embodied Restorying Process (ERP)
1. Recharacterize (authentic Self identity) when you were at your best
2. Externalize (re-framing) Make the Problem the old role-expectations of ’they-self’ NOT the person trapped in the role-label
3. Sympathize (benefits) – of old role-label of Mr. Roadrunner (running from relations) Map the payoffs (e.g. Payoff that do not have to try, can be loner)
4. Revise (consequences) – Map the Social, Economic, Political, Cultural influences of old role-label stereotypes (e.g. Consequence of divorce, estranged from children, etc.)
5. Strategize (Little Wow Moments of Exception to Grand Narrative role expectations); Reclaim best of you and give them a new name (e.g. No longer Mr. Roadrunner, being Mr. Dependable). ERP facilitator writes letter to person and to family listing Little Wow Moments
6. Restory (rehistoricizes the Grand Narrative ’they-self' by collecting Little Wow Moments into 'New Story’ of potentiality-for-Being-one’s-authentic-whole-Self. ERP facilitator writes letter to Service Member and Family members retelling the ‘New Story’ that was told by them.
7. Publicize (support networking) e.g. letter writing with supporters of your ‘New Story’ with family members, the ERP facilitator write letters reinforcing support of family for Service Member’s ’New Story.' 

           Embodied Restorying Process (ERP) is about the anticipation of a “New Story’ that combines: revealing, unfolding, holding fast, and projection by anticipation of a possibility of “having an authentic potentiality-for-Being-a-whole emerges” (Heidegger, 1962: section #266).  ERP is about liberating the Self from the received ‘they-self’ of Grand Narratives (Boje, 2001, see chapters on Grand Narrative, and on Microstoria). A Grand Narrative is a linear plot and characterization that decides a ‘they-self’ general rule, a character-stereotype, a standard, tasks they become your role in life, rather than finding in ‘New Story’ an “authentic-Being-one’s-Self” (#267).   Restorying through Sandplay is letting the person rediscover Little Wow Moments of Exception, where they did not fulfill the expectations of ‘they-self.’ “Self-hood” is defined as a “way of existing” that is not just the body present-at-hand, rather in ‘New Story’ its “authentic Being-one’s-Self” (#267).  

            The attestation in ERP of an authentic existence becoming possible in their ownmost anticipation of a ‘New Story’ mean finding Little Wow Moments of a specific place and a time when as Erving Goffman puts it, there was a ‘unique outcome’ not expected by the social, cultural, economic, political, schooling, or socialization. ERP by many rounds of restorying is about discovering a wide array of possibilities for a ‘New Story’ to emerge. 

            Each round of restorying “gives testimony” to the interplay or struggle between the ‘they-self’ and a potentiality-for-Being-one’s-authentic-Self. To the Grand Narratives of pathologizing a permanent labeling, the New Story is seen as fantasy.  In ERP there is a revealing, unfolding, holding fast to LWMs, and projection of an authentic New Story for Self-being-a-whole.

            When the impossibility of authentic existence is anticipated, there is no space for liberation to create ‘New Story.’ In sandplay the person comes face-to-face with ‘they-self.’ There can be anxiety about the possibility-for-Being a liberated Slef from all the they-self surrounding the person.  The anticipation of a possible “New Story’ is a self-rescue from “lostness in the they-self” and this is why it is necessary to work free of “Illusions” posed by Grand Narratives (#266).

            The ‘New Story’ takes on “facticial existence” (#264) through the sandplay as the person begins to liberate Self from the outstripping ‘they-self’ to create a “whole potentiality-for-Being” (#264). In Trial One, the they-self can be quite dominant in the rounds or restorying. The Self has accepted they-self as their role in life, and is not anticipating out potential roles. This is about liberation from ‘they-self’ to create a ‘New Story’ that has potentiality-for-Being in an understanding and Interpretation of existence that the person and their family can support and cultivate.  The Self anticipated being “liberated” from ‘they-self’  (#264).  This means the ‘New Story’ its ‘authentic Self’ coming along-side and Being-with the ‘they-self’ and creating alternatives ‘bets’ on the future in new potentialities-for-Being.

            Lefebvre (2004: 67) concludes that it is import that 'rhythmanalyical project' not lose sight of the body. The body is polyrhythmic (diverse rhythms) and eurhythmic (in normal situation). The Living body has to condent with arrhythmia when rhythms break apart, and even the 'pathological situation' (IBID.). Our living body rhythms fall into place with the rhythms around us. Our military training is an intervention with the goal of making us attuned to extreme Situations: "conflict supposes arrhythmia: a divergence in time, in space, in the use of energies" (p. 68). ERP is a method for recovering eurhthmic balance. It is a 'moment of vision' and a reclaiming of exceptions to the stress moments, so that a glimpse of a 'New Story' of rhythmic balance becomes a possibility and a futural potentiality to bring aobu in one's own living body.