Holding On Together

BT: Does this undermine the whole enterprise for you?

IG: Not necessarily but I mean, obviously, you have to deal with that as it is which is something where you haven't had any chance to seriously interact or question or locate as I call it, and so it would be of limited use and it would be particularly of limited use for me because I see the collaboration around that initial life story as a crucial piece of collaborative research and investigation and what works. That seems to me that the very important stage for me in trying to get some sort of collaborative 'trade' going with the life story teller otherwise, I mean, they end up with exactly the knowledge of their life that they first had and their understanding hasn't been broadened in some sense as mine hasn't either. So the collaboration around that first telling of the life story script is a crucial trading point for research, understanding, investigation, theory building, whatever that collaborative pact that we develop with the life story teller is...

BT: Why would they want (their) understanding of their lives to be enhanced by you?

IG: I'm not saying it would be enhanced by me. I think it would be enhanced collaboratively: a simple distinction. Why would they want me to be part of their enhanced understanding, to rephrase you? Well, because I think it's often useful for some people, sometimes, to have another person or another presence while they work through and, in fact, another position, if you will, somebody standing there in an alternative position involving them in a conversation about their life. Some people would want that conversation, some wouldn't, so I think the question of why would people want enhanced understanding is obviously a key question. Some people do and some people don't. My business has tended to be to try to help people broaden their understanding of themselves, but that's just my purpose, but I would want to work with people who had that as a belief that they wanted to pursue, that they want to come to understand their life, their life history, better. I would imagine that I wouldn't be working collaboratively with people who didn't because, clearly, they wouldn't collaborate, I wouldn't want to...

BT: So at the initial stage of the life history enterprise, you would explain in detail what is required of these people? What their commitment should be? What your role is?

IG: Yeah, I don't know whether I would is the truth... laying out in detail what the collaboration is about is actually jumping the gun. Because... many people might not want to go to stage two... and they have the right not to. So if you from the beginning define this as something which is about enhancing their understanding or working with them towards understanding, which is the way I prefer to put it, you're kind of pre-judging immediately the kind of person that you are seeking and the kind of collaboration you are seeking. Obviously, there are as many positions on this as there are people. And I think it is perfectly legitimate to say, as some people have, actually, 'look, I've told you my life story, that's enough, I don't want to know any more', that doesn't invalidate that particular rendition that you've got, it is a life story which you have not been able to collaborate around, but it is still a life story.