Narrative Psychology and Beyond

Abstract

Despite psychology’s continued interrogation into the nature of the self, it has stopped short of arriving at a framework of understanding that does justice to this elusive phenomenon. One reason is methodological: By trying to encapsulate and contain the self through its ever-growing arsenal of discrete methodological techniques, it has managed to obscure the very phenomenon it seeks to understand. The second reason is theoretical: By restricting its view largely to the internal workings of the human experience, it has also managed to obscure those dimensions of “otherness” that are the very sources of human flourishing, both existential and ethical. Bearing these difficulties in mind, it is suggested herein that “narrative psychology”—the in-depth exploration of human lives, in context and through time—can play a vitally important role in redirecting the study of the self. It is also suggested that, by moving beyond narrative psychology and looking more broadly toward the psychological humanities, we might succeed in fashioning both methods and theories more adequate to the human condition.