Homo narrans
No amount of objective analysis or logical resolution can come to rescue when we try to navigate the most complex and nuanced tribulations of human interaction. Sometimes there is no substitute for the catharsis of talking things through or the empowerment of telling one’s own version of a story.
What is the role of tension and release when listening to a story, getting the punch line of a joke or appreciating a piece of music? Is there a physiological component to this?
Can the science of psychology reveal more about the human condition than literary works? Why are the essential differences between interpretation and the kind of objective analysis used in the natural sciences? When comparing the narrative approach with the logico-scientific approach is one inherently superior to the other? Are story-telling and myth making persisting vestiges of the pre-scientific thinking of a bygone age?
Logical resolution is subordinate to narrative thinking when we are attempting to understand people and their plights. Objective analysis and technical solutions are often inadequate for resolving the vicissitudes of everday life. The cathartic nature of story telling can help with, say, the loss of a loved one, a long-term family rift, rejection in love, betrayal by a friend or sustaining life-time commitments like marriage and parenthood.
Fiction can come to the aid of people wrestling with life’s exigencies large and small. Authentic parallels can be found in the archetypal characters and distilled versions of real life situations contrived in works of literature, drama, and mythology.
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