'Of course you like to fight': Frames for storytelling in a liberal anger management programme

Abstract

Previous research has critiqued conventional anger management programmes for disregarding participants’ values honouring masculine performances of being tough, risk-seeking and capable of violence. Conversely, the Danish programme subjected to case study in this paper, represents a liberal approach that endorses such values while still encouraging participants to reform their behaviour. We investigate this approach as a frame for participants’ storytelling, that is, narrative presentations of past, present and future selves. Detailed narrative analysis demonstrates the counsellor’s conveyance of a non-judgmental attitude, which indicates expectations that participants value practices such as fighting and using illegal drugs. We explain how the approach emerges as a gendered and classed frame which some participants may not align with, specifying how a participant who is unable or unwilling to adopt expectations may struggle to present as properly masculine. The study demonstrates that therapy which seeks to accommodate particular forms of masculinities may unintentionally marginalise some participants.