Searching for the Self: Classic Stories, Christian Scripture, and the Quest for Personal Identity

by Adrian T. Smith

In sum, constructing our narrative identity is a collaborative effort. It happens in conversations, in which our audience shapes our story (and we shape theirs).664 Let me offer a powerful example of this multi-vocal experience—a true clash of narratives.665 Our protagonist: Tom, “a 66-year-old married, middle-class White man . . . diagnosed with a chronic depressive personality.”666 ECT didn’t work. Medication didn’t work. More in desperation than hope, Tom’s psychiatric unit handed him over to narrative therapist Stephen Madigan. The latter encouraged Tom to tell his own story in his own words. Since retirement, Tom had felt “bored and unaccomplished.”667 The hospital treatments had only increased his sense of futility. Tom reached the point of questioning if his life was worth living. Interestingly, though, an unquenched passion for gardening flickered amidst the despair. Madigan took the unusual step of inviting Tom’s friends to write Tom letters of encouragement, containing these upbeat narratives: In the letter could you relay an experience you have had with Tom that you see as neither boring nor unaccomplished, and indicate what kind of future you would like to enjoy alongside Tom.668 In response: forty-one letters, with hopeful counter-narratives about Tom. Emboldened by these alternative scripts, Tom held a celebration party, and checked himself out of the psychiatric unit. Taking a birds-eye view, we can approximate Tom’s journey as the “rebirth” archetype (discu...