Storied Lives: The Cultural Politics of Self-Understanding.

Abstract

In this provocative book, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists analyze interviews with a range of subjects (a minister, Holocaust survivors, a rape victim, and others) to present a new way of thinking about autobiographical narratives. They argue that these narratives play a significant role in the formation of identity, that the way they are told is shaped by prevalent cultural norms, and that the stories may be liberated from the psychic and social obstacles constraining them if the narrators gain critical insight into their own accounts.