Narrative negotiation of personal identity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21702866 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maria Cristina Contrino (0009-0000-0570-7521, Anglia Ruskin University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 85-102 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophical Explorations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1386-9795 • E-ISSN: 1741-5918 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13869795.2025.2459939 |
| OpenAlex | W4407731031 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 30 |
I develop a framework for a narrative approach to personal identity as a practical notion that focuses on the role of narratives employed in common, ordinary contexts and everyday interactions (henceforth ‘ordinary everyday narratives’). However, such narratives can be erroneous and contain factual errors and distortions, including delusions about one’s identity. I review three narrative approaches arguing that they do not account convincingly for the role of erroneous narratives for one’s practical identity. I argue that a practical identity is negotiated in ordinary everyday verbal and embodied narratives. According to my narrative approach, firstly, ordinary everyday narratives often suffice to convey one’s experiences, beliefs and aims within everyday interactions with others. Secondly, embodiment allows one to develop embodied narratives, i.e. temporally organised and goal-directed sequences of actions, habits and skills. Thirdly, one negotiates her practical identity through narratives and embodied interactions that structure first-personal and second-personal practical relations. I argue that a negotiated practical identity allows for the ‘repair’ of minor errors and the recognition of the practical significance of major errors, like delusional narratives, in shaping one’s practical identity. Finally, identity negotiation offers some scope for resistance against oppressive narratives
Aesthetics · Epistemology · Linguistics · Narrative · Narrative identity · Narrative inquiry · Negotiation · Personal identity · Self-concept · Social science · Sociology · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Social identity theory
Narratives and Narrators
Staying Alive
Holding and Letting Go
A Pattern Theory of Self
Against Narrativity
Narrate It Until You Become It
What’s special about ‘not feeling like oneself’? A deflationary account of self(-illness) ambiguity
Narrative self-constitution as embodied practice
Distributed autobiographical memories, distributed self‐narratives
Affectivity and the distinction between minimal and narrative self
Self and Other
The interactional achievement of speaker meaning
Narrative and identity in Alzheimer's disease
Narrative Integration, Fragmented Selves, and Autonomy
Narrative Explanation
The dynamic and recursive interplay of embodiment and narrative identity
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |