Narrative Identity … …at the Crossroads of Hermeneutic Philosophy and Cognitive Psychology Ray Sparrowe

Framing the conversation A narrative about narrative identity – or, how I stumbled into this arena A narrative about narrative identity – or, how I stumbled into this arena Where I find myself now Where I find myself now Where to go from here? Where to go from here? –Go forward, or set aside –If forward … Directions for further constructive theory? Directions for further constructive theory? Links to other lines of research? Links to other lines of research? Potential empirical work? Potential empirical work?

The story illustrated

A narrative about narrative … What is Authentic Leadership? What is Authentic Leadership? –“To thine own self be true” –Speaking one’s own true voice (Kouzes and Posner) –Finding one’s inner purpose (George) So, the authentic self … So, the authentic self … –Is discovered through self awareness –Stands over against the influence of others –Endures as a touchstone for consistency

But …. (my hunches) Does self-awareness faithfully disclose our true selves – or is self-awareness motivated? (Think Freud here) Does self-awareness faithfully disclose our true selves – or is self-awareness motivated? (Think Freud here) Are our true selves constituted apart from others, or through relationships with others? (Recall who Jesus met in the wilderness) Are our true selves constituted apart from others, or through relationships with others? (Recall who Jesus met in the wilderness) Is consistency all it’s cracked up to be, or is there virtue in flip-flopping? Is consistency all it’s cracked up to be, or is there virtue in flip-flopping?

Take 1: The Narrative Self Paul Ricoeur Paul Ricoeur –Heir apparent in the tradition of Dilthey, Husserl, Heidegger and Gadamer –Emphasis on the interpretation of ‘texts’ – symbols (1967), metaphor (1977), and narrative (1984; 1985; 1988) But uneasy within the interpretative paradigm (Burrell and Morgan) But uneasy within the interpretative paradigm (Burrell and Morgan) Leans towards social constructivism (Gergen, 1985), but wants to recover the objective in the subjective Leans towards social constructivism (Gergen, 1985), but wants to recover the objective in the subjective Sensemaking: More like Weick Sensemaking: More like Weick

Narrative in Ricoeur’s Thought Emplotment (the narrative engine) Emplotment (the narrative engine) –“draws a meaningful story from a diversity of events or incidents” (1984, p. 65) –“brings together factors as heterogeneous as agents, goals, means, interactions, circumstances, and unexpected results” (1984, p. 65) – “To understand the story is to understand how and why the successive episodes led to this conclusion, which, far from being foreseeable, must finally be acceptable, as congruent with the episodes brought together by the story” (1984, p ). –“Discordant Concordance”

The Narrative Self Emplotment Unifies discordant events… Emplotment Unifies discordant events… –Weaves together discordant events into a cohesive narrative –Intertwines the character and the plot thereby lending self-constancy to an individual’s identity in relation to the temporal totality of an implied beginning, middle, and end …thereby disclosing character through the plot …thereby disclosing character through the plot

The Narrative Self Emplotment unifies discordant events and experiences … Emplotment unifies discordant events and experiences … –What Ricoeur calls “imaginative variation” –Actual, counter-factual, and hypothetical –we ‘make sense’ of events by figuring them into brief plots – often with implied or actual actors, intentions, and outcomes. –These brief plots are then retrospectively figured into larger narratives where there is an implied or actual beginning, middle, and ending.

The Narrative Self But where do these imaginative variations come from? But where do these imaginative variations come from? –Literature represents a “vast laboratory for thought experiments” (1992, p. 148) –Providing story lines (short plots and episodes) for entertaining alternative pasts, presents, and futures And so, by extension, imaginative variations come from others all around us (e.g. culture) And so, by extension, imaginative variations come from others all around us (e.g. culture)

The Narrative Self The Narrative Self is constituted in relation to others … “Oneself as Another” in two ways … The Narrative Self is constituted in relation to others … “Oneself as Another” in two ways … –Others as sources for plot lines and selves roviding story lines (short plots and episodes) for entertaining alternative pasts, presents, and futures Much like Markus’s possible selves or Ibarra’s provisional selves Much like Markus’s possible selves or Ibarra’s provisional selves –In narrating the self, we represent ourselves as ‘another’ who is the ‘object’ of our subjective narration Connections to Mead, Cooley, and Berger and Luckmann Connections to Mead, Cooley, and Berger and Luckmann

The Narrative Self ….. So …. The self is a narrative interpretation, where disparate events and imaginative variation illuminate character and identity The self is a narrative interpretation, where disparate events and imaginative variation illuminate character and identity –Rather than a prototype-matching process Authenticity is not flight from others, but emergent from interpretation of self in relation to others and oneself as another Authenticity is not flight from others, but emergent from interpretation of self in relation to others and oneself as another Authenticity is not being true to one’s self, but the esteem one holds for others and the regard others hold for us Authenticity is not being true to one’s self, but the esteem one holds for others and the regard others hold for us

Take 2: Time Travel (Autobiographical Memory) What do you remember of … What do you remember of … –Your second day of high school? –Your first day in college? –Your second publication? –Your first publication? … the day of the 9/11 attacks? … the day of the 9/11 attacks?

Take 2: Autobiographical Memory Flashbulb Memories Flashbulb Memories –Great vividness, detail –Narrative qualities: setting, event, outcome –Confidence in veracity is high but mostly illusory False Memories False Memories –‘Lost at the mall’ Forgetting Forgetting Intrusion Intrusion Childhood amnesia Childhood amnesia –ABM starts at about four years of age –Not especially accurate before six years of age First time events have greater recall First time events have greater recall Emotional Aspects Emotional Aspects –Increase recall –Increase fuzziness

Take 2: Autobiographical Memory (Conway, 1991) Episodic Memory Episodic Memory –Recollected episodes associated with visual information –Not particularly sensical as self-reports by themselves (e.g. when people relate their dreams) Semantic Memory Semantic Memory –Knowledge we ‘remember’ about our past Autobiographical Memory weaves episodic and semantic memory together into scripts (plots) when we have an occasion to give an account of ourselves Autobiographical Memory weaves episodic and semantic memory together into scripts (plots) when we have an occasion to give an account of ourselves

Take 2: Autobiographical Memory Autobiographical memory Autobiographical memory –Narrative provides a context uniting knowledge and recollection –Draws from scripts learned in interaction as a small child (Nelson and Fivush, 2000) –Like the script that “things get better over time” (Rubin & Bernsten, 2003) –Scripts are embedded in culture and language (Ross, Xun & and Bernsten, 2002)

The Narrative Self Putting it together “As for the narrative unity of a life, it must be seen as an unstable mixture of fabulation and actual experience. It is precisely because of the elusive character of real life that we need the help of fiction to organize life retrospectively, after the fact, prepared to take as provisional and open to revision any figure of emplotment borrowed from fiction or history.” “As for the narrative unity of a life, it must be seen as an unstable mixture of fabulation and actual experience. It is precisely because of the elusive character of real life that we need the help of fiction to organize life retrospectively, after the fact, prepared to take as provisional and open to revision any figure of emplotment borrowed from fiction or history.” –Ricoeur “Our attitudes and our choices are, in no small part, the consequence of the “occasion of personhood” that organisms concoct on the fly of each instant. Little wonder, then, that we can vary and waver, succumb to vanity and betray, be malleable and voluble. The potential to create our own Hamlets, Iagos, and Falstaffs is inside each one of us. Under the right circumstances, aspects of those characters can emerge, briefly and transiently, one hopes. In some respects it is astonishing that most of us have only one character, although there are sound reasons for the singularity. “Our attitudes and our choices are, in no small part, the consequence of the “occasion of personhood” that organisms concoct on the fly of each instant. Little wonder, then, that we can vary and waver, succumb to vanity and betray, be malleable and voluble. The potential to create our own Hamlets, Iagos, and Falstaffs is inside each one of us. Under the right circumstances, aspects of those characters can emerge, briefly and transiently, one hopes. In some respects it is astonishing that most of us have only one character, although there are sound reasons for the singularity. –Damasio

But …. (my hunches) Does self-awareness faithfully disclose our true selves – or is self-awareness motivated? (Think Freud here) Does self-awareness faithfully disclose our true selves – or is self-awareness motivated? (Think Freud here) Are our true selves constituted apart from others, or through relationships with others? (Recall who Jesus met in the wilderness) Are our true selves constituted apart from others, or through relationships with others? (Recall who Jesus met in the wilderness) Is consistency all it’s cracked up to be, or is there virtue in flip-flopping? Is consistency all it’s cracked up to be, or is there virtue in flip-flopping?