Abstract
The nature of narrative is explored as well as why narrative has been so natural and so important, universal to people worldwide through the centuries. The function served by stories is explored. Attempts are made to mine the structure of narrative and to answer the reader's question: how will this help me in my day-to-day work as a psychoanalyst? The basic necessities of story are enumerated, and some of the constitutive elements of narrative are contrasted with other modes of discourse. Freud's comments in The Poet and the Daydream are taken quite literally in this essay, which stresses the influence of unconscious process on changing modes of discourse.That moment when the analyst or analysand switches from one mode of discourse to another, here called a juncture, is compared to the pauses, doubts, and changes of venue within the dream. Modes of discourse psychology, dream psychology, and neurosis psychology are studied on parallel or similar tracks.The analysand's recognition of author, protagonist, antagonist, narrator, and listener (audience) is a new way of thinking about therapeutic action.A brief synopsis of the technical similarities and differences of a number of discourse modes is given, followed by a survey of recent experimental work on children's theories of the mind and narrative acquisition.
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