Meganarativ

Meganarativ is the name of the informal meeting initiated by Narativ group for the supporters of postmodern practices. The word Meganarativ  is composed from two words: “mega” and “narativ”. Narativ is the name of our four-member group of psychologists and therapists and of our website narativ.cz. With our name, we attach to a metaphor of “a story” for it grasps the approaches we talk about. The word “mega” means something rather big or extraordinary in Czech slang, used usually by young people in our city - Brno.  The composition of these two words then refers both to the postmodern field and the local language of Brno, in an easy, informal manner which invites a broader community of people.

The evolution of this event has been quite spontaneous. We, four member of Narativ, used to have our regular “staff meetings” in the early days of the Narativ group, very often in the pub, discussing the philosophical background and the broader field of postmodern approaches. After some time we found out that there might be more people interested in these conversations and we decided  to invite them to our group not only through our website but also face to face. That is how we organized the first “off-line” meeting, to share our ideas and consider some other opportunities to meet.

So many people came and showed their interest! That is why we have hold on this idea and suggested regular monthly meetings. From the very first moment we were clear that instead of educating people we will try to open the space for an informal discussions about diverse topics from different fields (e.g. psychotherapy, psychiatry, philosophy, communication, psychology, social work, etc.) and show the possibilities of using postmodern ideas.

For the first meetings, we have invited our friends, colleagues, students and others to a nice café or pub and shared with them some videos from workshops, supervisions or consultations.  After some time, when the community started to grow, people have begun to present their own ideas – projects, writings, videos. People participate actively in the program with their practice or dilemmas and our Narativ group only provides organisational background and invites people (face to face or on-line). There are no limitations for the presenters, except a few suggestions:

• The topic should be related to practice
• There should be a link to the postmodern ideas (even critical one)
• We prefer combinations of forms of presentation (it could be video, short presentation or excersise)
• all present participants should be invited into the conversation
• Examples: I started to do reflecting teams in the NGO with people using drugs and I met some organisational challenges, or I write a diploma thesis about dialogical principles in the therapy, or Collaborative experience from the education on University...

So far, several volunteers presented their projects or topics. The project “KOST” can serve as an example. Psychology students talked about their volunteering in mental health hospital and communicating with people there. Another one is a Foucaldian invitation by the student of philosophy or collaborative writing experiences about dialogical research etc. After some experiences we chose a stable place to meet – it is an alternative pub called “Wash club”. We use their large room and technique for our purposes every first Wednesday of the month. Everyone from the „postmodern community” in Brno knows this first months Wednesdays as a time of an informal combination of postmodern ideas and underground atmosphere.