Narrative Coherence and Disruption: Negotiating Between Positive and Existential Psychology

Abstract

“Meaning” is a theoretical concept of utmost importance to positive and existential psychologists in their interpretations of narratives of suffering and healing, yet the two schools of thought define meaning in notably different ways: positive psychology tends to hold a "neat" notion of meaning as restoring coherence or transcending suffering, while existential psychology often employs an “untidy” understanding of meaning as often unstable and elusive. As they apply these different theories of meaning to narratives, positive and existential psychology produce distinctive readings that accentuate “concordant” experiences and “discordant” experiences, respectively. We argue that while such readings illuminate certain aspects of life, they do not always capture how these aspects are narratively connected, producing stories of what philosopher Ricoeur (1984) called “discordant concordance.” We use the narrative of an older woman who was living with cervical cancer, grieving the loss of her partner, and finding new love in a recent relationship to show the narrative connections between losses and discoveries of meaning. Her story is especially apt to our purpose, for narratives of aging, illness, and bereavement sometimes provide the best demonstration of the interdependency of narrative coherence and chaos. We believe there is potential for positive and existential psychology to inform each other’s project by including this dialectics of coherence and chaos within their notions of meaning. We conclude by suggesting that our abilities, as psychologists, to understand narratives of suffering may be broadened further by two considerations: first, re-evaluating the association between narrative coherence and well-being—an assumption often held by positive and existential psychologists alike that discounts the potential liberating effects of chaos and uncertainty within narratives; and second, by placing meanings within the social and cultural contexts of their production, which may expand our recognition of multiple narrative forms.