Waves of Information, Suffocated Understanding, and the Place for Narrative Inquiry in the “Post-Truth” Era

Abstract

Psychologists working in the field of narrative inquiry draw from multiple scholarly traditions, ground their work in differing epistemological positions, embrace a plurality of interpretive frameworks, and approach analysis from various perspectival orientations. Thus, in this article I do not present a monological story about narrative truth; rather I explore a range of ways that notions of veridicality are addressed and negotiated by narrative psychologists. In exploring notions of Truth, truths, facts, meanings, and understanding, I present some of the epistemological frames, conceptual tools, and analytic approaches employed by narrative researchers, and in so doing, illuminate how they come to, articulate, and justify their claims. These practices, I argue, generally reflect a suspicion of “the Truth” of a monological story, an appreciation of the relationship between truth and method, and an acknowledgement of the great responsibility involved in interpreting the story of another. Accordingly, I argue that practitioners of narrative inquiry in psychology generally take issues of veridicality more seriously than those who have historically sought certainty and claimed “Truth,” and that the field has much to offer in the “post-truth” era – a time of abundant information and minimal understanding.