I like the use of the word alignment in this article for bridging meaning & purpose via storytelling.
But, without compassion & insight, might such reframing & narrative produce dark purpose? – e.g., vindictiveness [1].
• Psychology Today > “The Story You Tell Yourself” by Jordan Grumet M.D., The Regret-Free Life (May 8, 2025) – We are “narrative beings.”
Happiness isn’t a destination; it’s a synthesis.
KEY POINTS
- Storytelling transforms trauma into meaning.
- Purpose is anchored in personal narratives.
- Sharing stories enhances purposeful impact.
- Meaning plus purpose equals lasting happiness.
… storytelling doesn’t stop at meaning. It also becomes the foundation for what we choose to do next. What we value, what lights us up, and what we feel called to pursue – all of it is influenced by the stories we carry about who we are and what we’ve been through.
To live a purposeful life, we need anchors – themes, values, or insights we commit ourselves to. And often, these anchors emerge from the meaning we’ve made through storytelling.
Notes
[1] Sometimes there’s need to reexamine personal stories or scripts, allowing richer (more complete, flexible), muti-layered narratives (and understand the perspectives that shape them).
• Psyche > “Your life is not a story: why narrative thinking holds you back” by Karen Simecekis, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick, UK (Oct 17, 2024) — Stories can change us by locking us into ways of acting, thinking, and feeling.
Simecekis discusses Sartre’s Being and Nothingness (1943) – for example, regarding ‘being’ vs. playing a role in ‘bad faith’. (That discussion reminded me of the classic 1964 book Games People Play by psychiatrist Eric Berne.)
Narratives are everywhere, and the need to construct and share them is almost inescapable. ‘A man is always a teller of tales,’ wrote Jean-Paul Sartre in his novel Nausea (1938), ‘he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others, he sees everything that happens to him through them; and he tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story.’
In some cases, narratives can hold us back by limiting our thinking. In other cases, they may diminish our ability to live freely. They also give us the illusion that the world is ordered, logical, and difficult to change, reducing the real complexity of life. They can even become dangerous when they persuade us of a false and harmful world view. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too eager to live our lives as if we were ‘telling a story’.
So, why is this a problem? One issue is complexity. Seeing yourself as the main character in a story can overly simplify the fullness of life.
For example, a child that accepts the narrative of being ‘naughty’ may incorrectly frame their behaviour as bad, rather than as an expression of their unmet needs.
We might never fully escape the narratives that surround us, … We don’t need better narratives; we need to expand and refine our perspectives.
• Wiki > Theory of narrative thought
The theory of narrative thought (TNT) is designed to bridge the gap between the neurological functioning of the brain and the flow of everyday conscious experience.