The Story of Narrative Theory
What is NT?
I like to think of NT as something similar to what my psychology, psychotherapy, and Eastern philosophy heroes built: something that was both a way of parsing out experience to make sense of it while also providing some kind of direction as to where we should direct our efforts to cultivate rich and meaningful experiences.
The primary influences on me were spiritual teachers Alan Watts, Zen Master Seung Sahn, Adyashanti, Eckhart Tolle, Ram Dass, psychologist Alfred Adler, cognitive theorists animal behaviorist Desmond Morris. There are countless others, but that may give you some idea of where NT really sits. I should caveat that while I definitely study and practice spirituality, I try to avoid that term because of its associations with superstition and a lack of scientific rigor. I’ve tried to present NT in a way that could withstand scientific scrutiny where claims (and accompanying predictions) are made. In a few cases I do speculate wildly and will make every effort to identify those speculations clearly.
I call NT a “theory” deliberately, not because it makes predictions, nor is any more hypothetical than other theories of science. Rather, NT is a framework for organizing observations and their relationships. Sometimes you’ll find that NT is just a way to think about things and not really controversial. But hopefully you’ll agree that the framework proposed is useful in clarifying situations, behaviors, and human experience.
Lastly, my hope is that NT is a little different from classic academic theories in that I want NT to be what I call a “collaborative theory.” In NT the reader will be introduced to frameworks and taxonomies that will require exposition. I want readers who are excited to contribute to not just filling out the details, but also adding to the architecture of the theory itself.
Development
Narrative Theory (NT) is my perspective that’s developed after years of confusion and trying to understand people and…life. That’s broad, but that’s what it is. And because it’s my personal attempt, it integrates lots of different perspectives and covers a lot of ground. Also, because it’s just my perspective, it’s also constantly evolving. This is mostly an organized snapshot.
Like I said, NT was really born out of my personal confusion and frustration. My mom exposed me to psychoanalytic theories when I was young, and it caused me to wonder about root motivations and what was always under the surface. My own overthinking and neurotic personality made it hard for me to understand what I was feeling very often. And it wasn’t until discovering meditation (and frankly struggling with it for years) that that confusion started to clear up.
Part of my confusion was due to my own inability and distrust in my own experience and what it amounted to. The other part, I believe, was a byproduct of theories that were too heady and just didn’t seem to fit with my experience. Even if they were right and everything had to do with my mother, that didn’t feel related to the experience I was actually having, and the more I meditated and reflected on the relationship between meditative states and non-meditative states, the more I started to develop my own interpretation of what actually was happening, and what was useful.
In the end, NT is just a way to make sense of the whirlwind of experience that comprises who we are. That’s all.