Narrating the self

Abstract Telling a story about oneself can sometimes transform that self. Sitting with friends and describing recent experiences, a narrator often reinforces and sometimes re-creates what sort of person he or she is. Sitting with a therapist and narrating their life's experiences, clients can sometimes realize who they are and who they want to be. Noting such transformative acts of narration, many have proposed that autobiographical stories do more than describe a preexisting self. Sometimes narrators can change who they are, in part, by telling stories about themselves.