Willig & Stainton-Rogers. Narrative Psychology PDF

The SAGE Handbook of
Qualitative Research in Psychology

Narrative Psychology
Contributors: Carla WilligWendy Stainton-Rogers

Print Pub. Date: 2008
Print ISBN: 9781412907804
Online ISBN: 9781848607927
DOI: 10.4135/9781848607927
Print pages: 147-164
This PDF was generated from SAGE Research Methods Online. Please note, the
pagination does not follow the pagination of the print book.
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Narrative Psychology
INTRODUCTION
In terms of qualitative methods in psychology, narrative inquiry can be seen to be very
much the new kid on the block. Narrative psychology, as a field of study with its own
identity, has been around for little more than two decades. While narrative methods of
inquiry have enjoyed wide application in the other social and human sciences, and in
literary and cultural studies, they have only begun to be taken seriously very recently in
psychology.
In this chapter, we briefly outline how the field has developed, stressing the significance
that a narrative approach to psychology can offer. We will then set out a case not only
for a cross-fertilization with other disciplines, but also for developing an approach to
narrative research that is firmly rooted within a psychological perspective. We call this
narrative oriented inquiry (NOI). We then set out a model of NOI, and demonstrate NOI
in action by working through an example. We conclude by considering some of the
critical issues that NOI poses.
THE NARRATIVE TURN IN

PSYCHOLOGY
While the narrative turn is very recent, an interest in story does have a relatively long
history in psychology. For example, a long narrative tradition can be found in the study
of personality, life-span development, biography and case study. Stern (1910) stressed
the importance of dealing with personal biographies which he argued were crucial to
understanding the unity of personality. Allport (1937) emphasized a narrative study
of the individual using personal documents as a source of information for the study
of personality, and Murray (1938) claimed that the narrative case study had crucial
importance for development of both medicine and psychology. Two other pioneers in
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The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in

Psychology: Narrative Psychology
Sage Research Methods Online
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this area, Buhler (1933) and Dollard (1935), are noted for their use of life history as the
preferred method of psychological research.
In addition, the psychodynamic perspective recognized the crucial role played by
narrative. Sigmund Freud saw how the stories that clients brought to therapy could
reveal the hidden depths of personality. He stressed the subtle detection of what was
not-narrated, as well as the connections with cultural stories or meta-stories. Another
pioneer, Alfred Adler, discussed the importance of the life scenario and life-scripts, and
C. G. Jung put his own emphasis upon narrative in the form of symbol and myth.
An explicit narrative perspective upon Freud's work has more recently been taken up
by Spence (1982, 1986) and Schafer (1983, 1992). Spence argues for a psychoanalytic
practice that is less concerned with historical truth, and more with personal truth.
Personal truth relies upon the construction of a narrative truth. Narratives do not only
record facts and events but also offer the means for constructing meaning out of the
chaos of lived experience. Spence (1982: 2) argues that it was Freud who made us
aware of the persuasive power of a coherent narrative: there seems no doubt but that a
well-constructed story possesses a kind of narrative truth that is real and immediate and
carries an important significance for the process of therapeutic change.
Schafer's concept of truth is close to Spence's conception. Schafer (1992: xiv-xv)
expresses this as follows:
It is especially important to emphasize that narrative is not an
alternative to truth or reality, rather, it is the mode in which, inevitably,
truth and reality are presented. We have only versions of the true and
the real. Narratively unmediated, definitive access to truth and reality
cannot be demonstrated. In this respect, therefore, there can be no
absolute foundation on which observer or thinker stands; each must
choose his or her narrative.
It is important to note that these issues raised by Spence and Schafer are not restricted
merely to psychoanalytic theory and practice, but have radical implications for the
discipline of psychology in general. Indeed, we would argue that they seriously question
its very foundations.
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Murmurings of what can now be seen as a paradigmatic breakthrough can be traced

through the work of White (1973), Mink (1978), Chatman (1978) and Ricoeur (1979,
1983, 1984, 1985), leading to the landmark
publication: On Narrative (Mitchell, 1981). However, if we are to put a date to what has
been called the narrative turn in psychology, then it is 1986. Following a symposium in
the summer of 1983, Theodore Sarbin put together an edited book with contributions
from leading researchers in the field, entitled: Narrative Psychology: The Storied Nature
of Human Conduct (Sarbin, 1986).
Sarbin possibly goes further than anyone else in establishing the foundations for
the new field of narrative psychology. Identifying what he saw as an epistemological
crisis in his own field of social psychology, Sarbin used Pepper's (1942) notion of root
metaphor i.e. a commonsense analogy in order to offer a rethinking of psychology.
Previous root metaphors adopted in psychology included: machines (mechanism),
and whole/parts (organicism), but Sarbin argued that narrative, especially as a model
of contextualism, could serve as a radically new root metaphor for psychology. In
effect, he was arguing that to have any success in understanding human action, a
completely new approach, closer to the way in which historical events are explained and
understood, was needed.
In the same year, 1986, two other significant texts were published: Bruner's (1986)
Actual Minds, Possible Worlds and Mishler's (1986a) Research Interviewing: Context
and Narrative. This was then quickly followed by the publication of Polkinghorne's
(1988) Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences and Bruner's (1990) Acts of
Meaning. Bruner, Mishler and Polkinghorne, who had all contributed chapters to
Sarbin's original text, were adding their own seminal contributions to the field. The
narrative turn was established.
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NARRATIVE

PERSPECTIVE IN PSYCHOLOGY
It is our view that this new area of psychology is not concerned simply with what might
be seen as a sub-topic within social psychology, or an issue on the fringes of the
discipline, but represents a particularly significant development for the entire discipline.
It is important to realize that narrative is not simply a literary genre, or merely a form of
human discourse, but is a basic property of the human mind, rather aptly described by
Hardy (1977: 12) as a primary act of mind transferred to art from life . Events do not
present themselves as stories, but it is the experience of an event that becomes a story.
Ricoeur (1987: 429) stresses that a story is always preceded by a narrative intelligence
that issues from [a human] creative intelligence . And, Bruner (1990: 51) expresses
the same idea in terms of narrative having a dual landscape events and actions in a
putative real world occur concurrently with mental events in the consciousness of the
protagonists.
Bruner (1990: 67) remarks that narrative thinking has clear advantages in the everyday
world, and must be regarded as one of the crowning achievements of human
development. He proposes a distinction between narrative reasoning and rational
thinking, each a primary mode of thought, arguing for these to be seen as: two modes
of cognitive functioning, two modes of thought, each providing distinctive ways of
ordering experience, of constructing reality. The two (though complementary) are
irreducible to one another (Bruner, 1986: 11).
In similar vein, Polkinghorne (1988) defines narrative as a fundamental scheme for
linking individual human actions and events into a contextualized and integrated whole.
Narrative is essential to the meaning-making process, such that events and actions can
be understood despite the fact that the reasons for them are not fully known. He points
out that narratives have powerful properties:
facts only partly determine the particular scheme to be used in their
organization, and more than one scheme can fit the same facts: several
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narratives can organize the same facts into stories and thereby give the
facts different significance and meaning.
Polkinghorne(1988: 181)
It is in this remark by Polkinghorne that the astonishing power of narrative thinking is
revealed: several narratives (perhaps an infinite number of narratives) can organize the
same facts into stories!
In summary, narrative plays a crucial role in almost every human activity. Narratives
dominate human discourse, and are foundational to the cultural processes that organize
and structure human action and experience. They offer a sense-making process that
is fundamental to understanding human reality. Narratives enable human experiences
to be seen as socially positioned and culturally grounded. Human experiences are
rendered as part of a shared version of reality, which can easily reproduce itself.
Moreover, narratives are not merely accounts of experience, they are performative,
offering frames for human action. They offer pragmatic and persuasive responses to
deal with life's events.
There are very many areas of psychology to which these ideas are finding application,
and we can only sample a few of these here.
One of the claims that is repeatedly being made for the function of narrative is that it
has a primary role in the construction and maintenance of self-identity (Gergen and
Gergen, 1983; Ricoeur, 1987; Shotter and Gergen, 1989; Kerby, 1991; Rosenwald and
Ochberg, 1992; Schafer, 1992; Lee, 1993; Linde, 1993; McAdams, 1993; Crossley,
2000; Ochs and Capps, 2001; Burr, 2003; Fireman, McVay and Flanagan, 2003;
McAdams, Josselson and Lieblich, 2006). Using our narrative intelligence, we choose
what matters to us, we participate in the construction of our own identities. Through
the stories that we construct we establish our identity positions. It would seem then,
that we are simply the assembled stories that we tell about ourselves, and the stories
that are told about us by others. It follows that we have the power to renegotiate our
identity by altering these stories. Moreover, narrative seems to be in a unique position
to promote human empowerment, and to challenge oppression, unnecessary suffering,
and discrimination.
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Narrative inquiry is making a major contribution to the study of human cognition (e.g.
Mink, 1978; Bruner, 1986, 1987, 1990; Murray, 1995; Edwards, 1997). The underlying
claim here is that the human ability to think narratively is crucial to our everyday
understanding of reality. For example, Stern (2004) has proposed that the present
moment is experienced as a lived story, and Hiles (2005) offers a distinction between
discursive and contingent narratives. Contingent narratives are stories that we generate,
consciously or unconsciously, in order to organize our immediate perception of events.
These are the building blocks of a narrative mode of thinking that is fundamental to
our construction of reality. Such narratives facilitate our memory of events, forming the
basis for later shared discursive accounts. Indeed, the study of narrative memory is a
field in its own right, drawing upon script theory and autobiographic memory, amongst
others (Schank and Abelson, 1977; Mandler, 1984; Wagenaar, 1986; Schank, 1990;
Linde, 1993; Neisser and Fivush, 1994; Freeman, 1999).
A further area of application is in health psychology (Kleinman, 1988; Radley, 1993,
1999a, 1999b; Frank, 1995; Murray, 1997, 1999). There is a growing interest in taking
a narrative approach to illness and medical practice (cf. Greenhalgh and Hurwitz, 1998;
Mattingly and Garro, 2000). There is possibly no greater challenge to our sense-making
processes than how we are able to give meaning to illness, particularly life-threatening
illness. For example, Mattingly and Garro stress how personal illness narratives are
more concerned with verisimilitude rather than verifiability the function of narrative
strategies is to convey believability, or plausibility, rather than a historical truth. Illness
narratives need to be seen as resourceful improvizations, offering opportunities to
reframe experience and construct revised identities.
As a final application, we will mention the field of psychotherapy and counselling,
especially family therapy (White and Epston, 1990; Neimeyer and Mahoney, 1995; Eron
and Lund, 1996; Freedman and Combs, 1996; McLeod, 1997; Monk, Winslade, Crocket
and Epston, 1997; Payne, 2000; Angus and
McLeod, 2004). The perspective here is less on the interpretive skills of the therapist
and more on the narrative resources of the client. The role of the therapist is seen
as a facilitator of narrative thinking. Freedman and Combs (1996: 16) write that we
discovered that as people began to inhabit and live out these alternative stories.
[they] could live out new self-images, new possibilities for relationship, and for the
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future. And Neimeyer (1995: 3) sums up the basic idea of his narrative approach as
follows: psychotherapy can be viewed as a kind of collaboration in the construction
and reconstruction of meaning. that will continue long after therapy ends. Narrative
therapy is to be considered as an opportunity for reframing experience what might
be described as an arena for re-biography and narrative reconstruction. Furthermore,
therapy is seen as an opportunity for problem dissolving, and for personal exploration
and experimentation.
In summary, it is because narrative is fundamental to our understanding of the human
mind, and because narrative dominates human discourse, and because narrative is
foundational to the processes that organize and structure human experience and action,
that the application of narrative methods of research has the potential for such very
wide application.
NARRATIVE ORIENTED INQUIRY (NOI)

When research participants are asked to talk about themselves, about their
experiences, or to explore some aspect of their life, they invariably use a narrative
mode of organization, i.e. participants will provide accounts that inevitably take on a
story structure. Unstructured and semi-structured interviews particularly encourage
a narrative mode of discourse. But narrative research is more than an extension of
discourse analysis: it is a field in its own right. Consequently, these narratives warrant
study in their own right, and this has led to the recent emergence of the approach to
research that we call narrative oriented inquiry (NOI).
NOI stresses that narrative is not merely a distinct form of qualitative data or a particular
approach to data analysis, but that it is a methodological approach in its own right,
which requires appreciation of the subtle paradigm assumptions involved, and a method
of data collection called a narrative interview (Mishler, 1986a, 1999). The position being
adopted is that interviews do not have to be seen as an interrogation, but can be seen
as a mutual exchange of views (Kvale, 1996), and as a site for the coproduction of
narratives (Silverman, 2001). Indeed, Mishler (1986a) argues that interviews should be
studied as speech events, and that narratives simply reflect one of the crucial means of
knowledge production that goes on in our everyday lives.
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Invariably, it is the nature of the research question that will point to the particular
approach to interviewing that needs to be employed. For example, if the research
question draws upon a paradigm that sees narratives as a participative activity in which
a person can author (and re-author) their own meaning-making activities, their lived
experience, their understandings of reality, and their own place in that reality, then a
narrative style of interviewing recommends
itself.
The narrative interview can take the form of a very open invitation Tell me about your
life your up-bringing, or can involve a more topic-oriented style of open questioning
How did you get into this type of work? Tell me about your recovery from illness
How did you come to be diagnosed? The first of these could be called the biographical
interview and the second the topic-focused interview, but there are many variations that
can be used.
The growing interest in the narrative field has led to a very wide variety of approaches
to the interpretation and examination of narrative data. Pioneers of narrative analysis
include Labov and Waletzky (1967), Mishler (1986a), Gee (1991), Riessman (1993),
Czarniawska (1998), leading to a proliferation which Mishler (1995: 88) describes as a
current state of near-anarchy.
In his attempt to bring some order to the field, Mishler (1995: 8990) offers a provisional
typology with a focus upon: (1) representation, particularly the tension between the
actual temporal order of events/episodes and their order of presentation as re-told;
(2) the linguistic and narrative strategies used by different genres to achieve structure
and coherence; and (3) the cultural, social and psychological contexts and functions of
stories.
The model of NOI offers an approach to narrative research that is firmly rooted within
a psychological perspective, reflecting Mishler's (1995: 117) concern that there is
no singular or best way to define and study narrative, and that we need to open up
the exploration of what we may learn from other approaches as we pursue our own
particular one.
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The challenges for NOI

There are many challenges to developing a systematic approach to narrative inquiry in
psychology, and we see the following as the most pressing issues.
Firstly, there is the need to develop an approach to narrative inquiry that is distinctive,
while honouring its roots. Narrative inquiry does have its roots in a social constructionist
perspective, but it does also entail a paradigm shift towards a more inclusive view
that incorporates both a rich description of the socio-cultural (discursive) environment
and the participatory and creative inner world of lived experience. In this respect,
narrative data always carries a double signature, i.e. social constructionist and
phenomenological. To this end, NOI sets out to combine a situated-occasioned action
perspective together with a view of the individual as actively and creatively engaged in
processes of meaning-making, organization and agency.
Furthermore, the events that are narrated are placed in a double context. On the one
hand, the re-told events are placed within their story context, i.e. within the context
of the whole story. While on the other hand, there is the discursive context of the
situated-occasion of this re-telling of the story. Narrative context must always be seen
as articulated twice. An important part of the analysis of a story is then the description
and understanding of how this double-contextualizing process is operating. The problem
here is that we are only at the very beginning of understanding how context works,
anyway.
A second challenge involves ensuring that the entire inquiry process is open to critical
and systematic reflexivity. Reflexivity is much more than an inspection of the potential
sources of bias in a study, and must begin with the conscious examination of the
paradigm assumptions, selection of research strategies, selection of participants, and
decisions made in collecting the data, conducting the interviews, and in analysing the
data and interpreting the findings. Reflexivity highlights the fact that the researcher has
a participatory role in the inquiry, is part of the situation, the discursive context and the
phenomenon under study. Hence, reflexivity can be a means for critically inspecting
the entire research process. The NOI model is designed to offer a framework for just
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this. Reflexivity understood in this way, demands transparency, and we will return to this
issue at the end of the chapter.
A third challenge for NOI is that narrative inquiry is far from being confined to only
psychology, and one of the pressing challenges is for psychology to integrate with
narrative research methods, insights and expertise in the sociological, educational,
clinical, and biographical fields, generating a multidisciplinary perspective. A related
challenge is the recognition of narrative inquiry as having the potential to provide links
within our still all too fragmented discipline. Narrative provides a common theme that
cuts across psychodynamic, cognitive, social, humanistic, transpersonal and integral
psychology in terms of both research and practice. Indeed, in this respect, we might
be so bold as to suggest that, following on from the discursive turn which has been
called the second cognitive revolution, narrative psychology might represent a third
cognitive revolution.
NOI in action
The focus that we want to take in this section is on the practical issues raised by
narrative inquiry. Our emphasis is upon research with personal narratives, especially
concerned with the collection and analysis of data from narrative interviews. However,
in principle this can be adapted to other kinds of narratives as well, e.g. autobiography,
diaries, conversational, therapeutic narratives, etc.
There is an expanding literature, in the wider social and human sciences, offering a
variety of approaches to collecting and analysing narrative data, e.g. Riessman (1993),
Clandinin and Connelly (2000), Wortham (2001), Czarniawska (2004), Elliott (2005),
etc. Many of these have much to commend them, but the problem is that narrative data
analysis can range from the more straightforward collection of stories to be categorized
and classified (into genres, etc.), through a more in-depth analysis of stories (e.g.
breaking them down into their underlying themes, or in an attempt to reconstruct the
original event), to a more closely focused micro-analysis of the narrative sense-making
process and the psychosocial context within which this takes place.
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What we have developed is a model of NOI that draws upon psychologically focused
approaches to narrative inquiry, and crucially embraces both the data collection process
as well as a range of data analysis approaches. We stress that NOI must begin with
a narrative approach to data collection that is reflected in the research question,
the research design and strategy for interviewing. The model of NOI is essentially a
dynamic framework for good practice. It is not intended to be exhaustive and definitive,
but is explicitly inclusive and pluralistic. The version presented here offers the essential
components for sound narrative research, but it needs to be noted that this is still workin-progress.
The model
The model that we will consider is illustrated in Figure 9.1. A key feature of the model is
the need to step back a little and take a broader point of view of NOI from start to finish.
NOI starts with a research question. With the research question in mind, a narrative
interview guide (NIG) is then set up, and participants are selected.
The narrative interview (Mishler, 1986a, 1986b) requires audio recording to generate an
audio text, which is then transcribed deleting personal identifiers as necessary. It is with
the raw transcript that data analysis begins. This transcript needs to be read through
several times (reading 1, 2, 3,). The purpose of the persistent engagement with
the written transcript is to build up a picture of the context, and the story as a whole.
There may be a continuing need to return to the audio text to clarify details for the raw
transcript.
Narrative analysis proceeds by first breaking the text down into segments. Some
approaches advocate presenting the transcript simply as numbered lines. The problem
with this is that lines are arbitrary. Since narratives are basically a sequence of
episodes, or events, we prefer setting out the transcript as a numbered sequence of
segments, a segment being roughly a self-contained episode, or move, in the telling
of the story. In turn, the text can be broken down further into specific units of analysis
determined by the particular analytic strategy being used. This is not foolproof, but is
relatively straightforward and transparent. The text is then arranged down the left-hand
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of each page with a very wide margin to the right where notes and annotations can be
made. It is this that we call the working transcript.
Analysis then proceeds by adopting a number of interpretive perspectives. We will
consider just six here, but in principle others can be added. These six perspectives
emerge from the integration of three key sources. The first of these uses Herman and
Vervaeck's (2001) distinction between bounded and unbounded motifs in narrative
discourse.
Figure 9.1 Narrative oriented inquiry (NOI): a model
This perspective in effect distinguishes fabula from sjuzet (pronounced sootzay), a

distinction made by the Russian Formalists, but can be dated back to Aristotle's Poetics.
The fabula is the content of a story, i.e. the original events as they might actually have
occurred. This is in contrast to the sjuzet which is the form of the narrative, i.e. the
window onto the events offered in the re-telling of the story.
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In literary theory, a further distinction can be made within the sjuzet between plot and
mode of narration. But this need not concern us here, since in narrative inquiry these
are confounded within the participant being interviewed.
The second key source, which we regard as possibly the most comprehensive
approach to narrative analysis available, is Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach and Zilber (1998).
Their approach to narrative data analysis offers four interpretive perspectives, based
upon the recognition of two underlying dimensions: Holistic-Categorical (i.e. the unit
of analysis is the whole story vs. the themes/categories that make up the story), and
Content-Form (i.e. the story-account itself vs. how the story is re-told). Combining these
two dimensions, they derive four approaches to analysis: Holistic-Content, HolisticForm, Categorical-Content and Categorical-Form. These constitute perspectives (ii) to
(v) in our model. Each of these four approaches may be connected to different types
of research question, different modes of text, and different sample size. The point is
that these approaches can be used singularly, or in any combination, drawing upon the
initial analysis into sjuzet-fabula, and feeding into further interpretive approaches.
The third key source is Emerson and Frosh (2004: 9), who offer the approach of critical
narrative analysis which they stress is sensitive to subject meaning-making, social
processes and the interpretation of these in the construction of personal narratives
around breaches between individuals and their social contexts. This then becomes the
sixth interpretive perspective that we have incorporated into our model of NOI.
The final element of the model is the concept of transparency, but we will leave a
discussion of this to the final section of the chapter. What follows can only be an
outline of NOI in action, and it should be noted that a close reading of Herman and
Vervaeck (2001), Lieblich et al. (1998) and Emerson and Frosh (2004) is considered
indispensable.
To illustrate NOI in action we will, within the space available, discuss one example,
Hanka's story (see Box 9.1), drawing upon each interpretive perspective in turn. The
extract is taken from a longer interview, which was part of a large scale project into
women's experience of surviving breast cancer in the Czech Republic (Chrz, #ermk
and Placha, 2006). The basic research question for the study was How are women
able to cope with breast cancer? The original interview was tape-recorded, transcribed
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first into Czech, and then translated carefully into English for our present purposes.
A working transcript was first produced by breaking the raw interview material down
into a sequence of segments, i.e. episodes/events/moments or movements/asides/
emphasis. These are then numbered consecutively, and include all utterances of both
the interviewer and interviewee. It should be noted that no tidying-up of the narrative is
employed (something that is in complete contrast to many other approaches to narrative
analysis that recommend tidying-up the narrative to leave only the core narrative to
be analysed). Of course, this working transcript is itself an interpretive process, and
this must not be overlooked in subsequent analytical work. Nevertheless, it is fairly
straightforward and transparent, and greatly facilitates all further analysis. Our focus
here is only upon segments 12 to 26 in Hanka's story.
(i) Sjuzet-fabula
The first interpretive perspective involves dividing the working transcript into sjuzet and
fabula (i.e. by convention we underline the sjuzet in the working transcript). We are
concerned here with an issue that is fairly well known (but is not that well understood!).
The point is that stories are made up of two inter-related and inter-penetrating parts:
i.e. what is being re-told (the fabula), and how it is being re-told (the sjuzet). It is our
view that from a psychological perspective both of these need to be analysed very
closely, but this is often overlooked in practice. The analysis hangs upon Herman and
Vervaeck's (2001: 46) crucial distinction between bounded and unbounded motifs in
narrative data. The fabula consists of bounded motifs that are fixed by the story being
re-told, while the sjuzet consists of unbounded motifs, defined as not essential to the
story but determining how the story is being re-told. In practice, this interpretive analysis
involves first identifying the
BOX 9.1 Narrative Text Example: Extract

from Hanka's story
(Working transcript of part of a longer interview, broken down into segments/episodes,
with sjuzet underlined)
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2.
4.
6.
8.
10.
12.
14.
16.
18.
20.
Tell me, please, about your experience with breast cancer.

The tumour was terribly huge, but the doctor I came to just told me the
diagnosis and that it seemed I would have to have an operation done and
that I should be prepared for surgery, since this one was very big, and that he
would offer me a reducing chemotherapy.
And I just when he uttered the word chemotherapy, that it was so terrifying
for me, and he was quite himself and he probably estimated me quite well,
since he started quite rashly with me: [he said] Why are you going crazy,
what? Chemotherapy? I went through it myself four years ago and I am
here. And it will be okay, just your hair will fall out. I say: The hair isn't at all
important to me.
I was terrified by this, since in fact a year before the illness my friend died of
lung cancer. She attended chemotherapy as well as the radiation and so it
was, cancer equals death. I didn't know anybody who has survived.
Well, so it was quite horrible, but somehow as I entered the treatment, I
was lucky with people who were there, who were still in the process of the
illness. So I suddenly saw, that they talk about it as about a flu [laughter],
somehow, well. And I had the advantage, that I had people around me, who
wanted to talk about it again and again, and me as well.
So I really talked out of it well, everything was going on successfully [sigh],
and then also the chemotherapies were quite okay. It is true, that then with
the operation, after the four chemotherapies it was little bit more difficult, my
health had got much worse, because the operation got me really down, that
the strength there was not enough of it, really.
But on the other hand I just had a friend, who has a huge family and
they set off for the whole summer, so when I was at the end with all those
chemos, they took me for a vacation to their private cottage, with their
granddaughters, I don't know with all the people [laughter]. I was with them
probably two weeks and was going without the wig, and then
however then another blow came [laughter], when I was to go for the
radiation, so then somehow an oncologist told me in the hall, in a terrible
way, that I have somehow the metastases in my lungs, and that I should not
keep much hope, well [bitter laughter].
She told you that in this manner?
In the hall, well, it really made me mad, really horribly, since it was really
crazy for me.
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22. Fortunately my oncologist, to whom she sent me later, that they had done
again two other CTs, everything was getting confirmed, that I really have
some huge tumour in the lungs and that these are probably metastases,
since it was on the other side than the breast and everything.
24. So I just said goodbye to life [sigh, crying], really, I just had it hard,
26. and he promised me, that we would try to find somebody, if he could operate
on me. Because that the results from the blood, that it doesn't really
look like, but that there really is something in the lungs, so they would try
somebody and that I should not push him forward, since it would take two
or three weeks.
28. Well, so that was the period when I just [huh] came to the conclusion
somehow, that nothing worse can happen to me, than that I could die, well.
And that so many of my dearest ones had died, that-just, that I might meet
them somewhere, or whatever. So this was somehow quite good, that a
person can really reach the bottom and then it was only rising,
30. since finally I got to the operation, the doctor was so gorgeous [laughter],
he just told me, that he described everything what he will do to me, that
it would not be so terrible, that the lung operation was really horrible, that
[laughter] he even prepared me for the fact, that it would hurt.
32. But I was telling him over and over, that I really would stand anything, that
I did not feel like dying since I felt like nothing was wrong with me. That I
was somehow breathing okay and so and that it makes no sense to me that
people who had sick lungs, that they could not talk or so [laughter].
sjuzet, i.e. single words, phrases and sometimes entire segments that are concerned
with emphasis, reflection, asides, interruptions, remarks, and various expressions
representing the sequence/causality/significance of events being related in the story.
The point is that stories are not simply related as events, but are re-told in a particular
way, in a particular sequence, from a particular point of view. The participant (as
narrator) positions themselves with respect to these events, and this positioning is
coded not simply in the selection of the story (i.e. content), but in the sjuzet, in the
particular way in which it is being re-told.
So, the first stage of analysis is to underline these unbounded motifs. This always takes
several readings, ending up with something like the text in Box 9.1. The result is a
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transcript in which the sjuzet seems to bracket the fabula. Indeed, a good test of this
phase of analysis is to read through the non-underlined text, ignoring the sjuzet entirely.
The fabula will then read as a simple coherent story, albeit rather flat in presentation.
It is worth remembering that the key feature of narrative text is the tension between
sjuzet and fabula. Therefore, we do not recommend simply analysing these separately,
but recommend using this basic division to help create the appropriate focus for further
analysis.
It can be seen from Hanka's story that the sjuzet consists mostly of remarks and
emphasis with words like: so, well, since, because, that, just, really, somehow,
fortunately, with phrases starting with words like: but, however, and with extralinguistic
expressions: sighs, huh's, laughter, crying, etc. It should also be clear that two crucial
segments in the telling of the story (Segs 14 and 24), consist of reflections expressed
mostly as sjuzet. This type of analysis is not without its difficulties, with some words
and phrases seeming to fall into both sjuzet and fabula, but the overall result is usually
quite convincing, and is transparent. It must be noted that this separation of sjuzet
from fabula, is just a first step in separating form and content, and by no means
exhausts this distinction. For example, part of the form of a narrative is embedded in the
content, i.e. in the sequencing of events as a plot structure, and in the complexity and
coherence employed. Nevertheless, this type of analysis is a necessary first step before
reintegration at a later stage of the analysis. The obvious techniques that can be used
to analyse the fabula are content and genre analysis, see (ii) and (iv) below. But the
analysis of sjuzet is possibly much more challenging. In Hanka's story, there is a strong
impression that Hanka's identity is crucially being positioned as a victim and survivor of
cancer in the unbounded features of the narrative space that she creates.
The point is that in narrative analysis we must focus on both the what and the how of
the re-telling, upon both the story that is being told as well as the way in which it is being
retold. This does confront us with some of the more subtle points involved in narrative
data analysis, and serves to make the point that this area is in need of considerable,
radical development. See (v) and (vi) below for two perspectives that begin to tackle
this.
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(ii) The holistic-content perspective

We now turn to the first of the modes of narrative analysis outlined by Lieblich et al.
(1998) which aims to create a holistic-content picture of Hanka's story, and involves
exploring and establishing links and associations within the entire story. The emphasis
here is upon the fabula, although not at the expense of the sjuzet. Lieblich et al. offer
two versions of this approach, firstly by identifying a broad perspective of the general
theme as in a case study, and secondly, by exploring how a specific segment of the
text can shed light on the story as a whole. The approach we will take to Hanka's story
is a variation on the second of these, identifying the turning points in her story, and
formulating a core narrative.
The procedure for a holistic reading of the text set out by Lieblich et al. (1998: 623) is
as follows:
2.
4.
read the material without any special attention until a pattern emerges;
put the first impression from this kind of reading into a written form, note
contradictory episodes, unusual parts of the story, or any feature that is
disharmonic towards a coherent story, etc.;
6.
choose a special focus of content or themes in the story as a whole, i.e.
delineate a space for themes which occur in the text in a repetitive way that is
meaningful within the whole story;
8.
mark the various themes, read them separately and repeatedly; and
10. keep track of the result in several ways, e.g. themes appearing for the first
time, crossover between themes, context, the main theme, marginal themes,
contradictory contents, etc.
In order to do justice to this type of analysis it is necessary to place this within the
context of the full interview. Having been divorced, Hanka (age 51) feels lonely in a
huge apartment and in her life. Her children have grown up and left home. Hanka tries
to be a person who is needed, she starts her own business and this adds to her stress
levels. The diagnosis of breast cancer brings about separation from her partner and
represents the first turning point in the story.
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Hanka fears death because, for her, chemotherapy is synonymous with a hopeless
fight. The doctor confronts her with his own experience, and calms her down. Crisis
deepens by the discovery of the carcinoma in her lungs. Operation and treatment
weaken her stamina, she finds support in a self-help group, a friend, and the friend's
family. She receives inconsiderate information about the metastasis. She resolves to
fight the cancer thanks to the empathic reaction of her oncologist. This is the second
turning point which enables Hanka to bounce back towards an active life. Mortality and
death are accepted, balanced against the hope of encountering dead loved ones. Not
only in illness, but even in death there is acceptance of an opening of a new space in
interpersonal relationships. Cancer is understood as reconciliation with one's fate.
While several major themes can be found in Hanka's story (see the discussion of
Categorical-Content analysis below), the approach here seeks to identify the core
narrative, i.e. a theme that is vivid, permeating the entire text, and is meaningful. What
emerge in Hanka's story are the notions of hardiness, stamina, of desire for life, best
summed up in the core theme of finding inner life-strength in the face of death. This
main theme is especially reflected in segments 14/15 and segments 24/25/26.
(iii) The holistic-form perspective

The focus of this perspective is on the form of the story rather than on its content. With
the focus here on the fabula (i.e. on the plot rather than the fine detail of the sjuzet),
consideration is given to the narrative typology, to narrative progression, and narrative
cohesion
(Lieblich et al., 1998: 88).
A classic typology of narrative is romance, comedy, tragedy and satire, i.e. narrative
structures affirming the social order, breaking/restoring the social order, loss of the
social order, and cynical challenge to social order, respectively. Hanka's story is
basically a romance (note that romance is used here in its technical sense).
Gergen and Gergen (1988) argue that every story is characterized by its plot. Stories
can progress towards the present moment in the teller's life, or can diverge from it. Plot
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analysis in its simplest form identifies three basic life-course patterns progression,
regression and steady, which in turn can be combined into more complex plots (#ermk,
2004).
In literary terms, a cohesive story is a well-constructed story in terms of continuity,
coherence and universality, and this can be used also with respect to life story.
Nevertheless, we need to try to avoid evaluation, and instead focus upon how the story
as a whole works in creating its meaning. Of course, both sjuzet and fabula each have
their role in this.
The configuration of Hanka's experience with cancer can be characterized in a
simplified way. The overall progress of Hanka's story is U-shaped. The story descends
to the bottom, from which the happier turn upward starts, with movement from
loneliness and separation towards integration into the community. The happy resolution
is emphasized repeatedly in the narration. The confrontation with the proximity of death
(Seg. 24 that nothing worse can happen to me, than that I could die) is the key
moment of this narrative configuration (Chrz et al., 2006).
The U-shape is the striking configuration of Hanka's story, and this finding is in accord
with Frye (1957) who proposes that the basic structuring principles of the narrative
imagination is formed mainly by structures of desire. This U-shape demonstrates this
specific phase of Hanka's life (the fight with cancer, and turning point in the course of
illness), representing the underlying dynamic of the story as a whole.
(iv) The categorical-content perspective

This approach to narrative analysis involves breaking the text down into relatively selfcontained areas of content, and submitting each to thematic analysis. This is basically
equivalent to content analysis (see Riessman, 1993). Lieblich et al. (1998: 11214)
outline four stages involved in this approach:
2.
formulation of a research question which enables the selection of a subtext

that becomes the focus of analysis;
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4.
6.
8.
definition of the subcategories/themes running through the text, these

might either emerge from the text in a grounded-theory manner, or may be
predefined by theory;
the units of analysis, i.e. utterances, phrases, episodes can then be assigned
to these categories; and
conclusions can then be drawn from the results.
Applying this to Hanka's narrative, the process involves concentrating on
regularities in the text, and identifying meaning-bearing utterances pertinent
to the original research question. Units of analysis are then assigned to these
subcategories. A summary of this analysis is presented in Box 9.2.
In the research from which Hanka's narrative has been taken (Chrz et al.,
2006), a major theme that was identified was the category, agency, to which
all of the subcategories contribute. In Hanka's case, two further major themes
were identified, these are spheres of influence (within which subcategories 1,
3,
10. can be placed), and responsibility (within which subcategories 2, 4, 6, 7 can
be placed).
BOX 9.2 Hanka: Categorical-Content

Analysis
Subcategory (1): fear of death
[Seg. 13] Unit of analysis: when he uttered the word chemotherapy, that it was so
terrifying forme.
Subcategory (2): closeness to people with a similar story
[Seg. 15] Unit of analysis: 7 was lucky with people who were there, who were still in the
process of the illness.
Subcategory(3): loss of physical strength
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[Seg. 16] Unit of analysis: the operation got me really down, that the strength there
was not enough of it, really. Subcategory (4): social support
[Seg. 17] Unit of analysis: I just had a friend, who has a huge family and they set off for
the whole summer, so when I was at the end with all those chemos, they took me for a
vacation to their private cottage.
Subcategory (5): second blow of fate
[Seg. 18] Unit of analysis: however then another blow came (laughter) that I have
somehow the metastases in my lungs.
Subcategory (6):acceptance of the illness
[Seg. 24] Unit of analysis: that nothing worse can happen to me, than that I could die,
well.
Subcategory (7): finding inner life strength
[Seg. 26] Unit of analysis: I really would stand anything, that I did not feel like dying
since I felt like nothing was wrong with me.
Hanka's agency is expressed in her storytelling by the way in which she tries to
make sense of what has happened to her. Her story represents the subtle aspects of
control vs. contingency involved in this sense-making process. In her story, fortunate
circumstances and a change of her attitude (the turning point) bring the story to the
happy ending, which can be conceived as Hanka's coping strategy.
These themes fit well with Frank's (1995) proposal that a person's reaction to illness
can fall into three basic configurations: restitution, chaos and quest narrative. According
to Frank, the chaos narrative and quest narrative are two possible ways of picturing
contingency in human life. In the chaos narrative the basic contingency involves
the negation of any expectations and rules. It is not welcomed and is perceived as
something undesired. By contrast the quest narrative involves facing up to suffering,
acceptance of the illness, and searching for the way to make use out of it. Hanka's
story can be seen as a quest narrative; she opens herself to the crisis and accepts the
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unpredictability and absence of control, including the ultimate contingency of human

mortality (Seg. 24 that nothing worse can happen to me, than that I could die), a
contingency that prefigures the happy moment leading to the happy ending in her
story.
(v) The categorical-form perspective

This fourth approach outlined by Lieblich et al. (1998) focuses upon the formal aspects
of the narrative, specifically including the sjuzet. This begins by choosing a category or
subtext for analysis, and then carefully exploring the linguistic features and plot devices
that offer emphasis and style in retelling the story. Such features might include: adverbs
(e.g. suddenly), mental verbs (e.g. I thought), denotations of time and place, past/
present/future forms of verbs, passive and active verbs, intensifiers (e.g. really, very),
disruptions of chronological and causal progression, repetitions, etc. (see Lieblich et al.,
1998: 156).
We will focus upon just two of the features of Hanka's story-telling: her use of direct
speech and the extra-linguistic components. These both serve to strengthen the
emotional impact of the events recounted, giving immediacy and authenticity to the retelling.
The use of direct speech occurs in Seg. 13, where the physician's words have the
impact of promoting a change in Hanka's agency, reflected in her directly reported
response. She draws up her inner strength , leading to gradual acceptance of her
illness, and accepting responsibility for the active fight with it. It should be noted that in
the working transcript (Box 9.1) the start of this direct speech is marked by the imputed
notation [he said], used merely as a cue for this type of analysis.
While a more thorough analysis would be appropriate, briefly, extra-linguistic
components, such as laughter, a sigh, or crying, indicate features in the telling which
could refer to difficult, still un-integrated, experience:
Seg. 22 So I just said goodbye to life [sigh, crying], really, I just had it hard,
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or may reflect an attempt to cope with a difficult experience, or realization:

Seg. 26 That I was somehow breathing okay and so that it makes no sense to me
that people who had sick lungs, that they could talk or so [laughter].
(vi) Critical narrative analysis

Each of the five previous types of analysis brings a subtly different perspective to
understanding narrative research, and it should also be evident that there are many
interpretive overlaps as well. This should not be seen as a problem, but rather as a
strength in our approach. And yet, there is still something missing from this framework.
This could be characterized as the functionality of Hanka's story. What sort of account
of her life is Hanka offering? How does Hanka position herself with respect to her
illness, and the series of events that unfold?
To this end, we include a sixth perspective, best exemplified in the work of Emerson
and Frosh (2004) (see Chapter 7). They call their approach critical narrative analysis,
which they characterize as psychosocial, embracing: the critical gains of discourse
analysis___but combining it with a focus on the active constructing processes through
which individual subjects attempt to account for their lives (Emerson and Frosh, 2004:
7).
The approach involves a microanalysis of both sjuzet and fabula (but with considerable
emphasis on the sjuzet), and is probably best used only after the previous interpretive
perspectives have been used. Using this approach, we find that three critical themes in
Hanka's story seem to stand out. Hanka positions herself with respect to:
2.
4.
experience of the things that are happening to me, e.g. Seg. 18 another
blow,, Seg. 24 that nothing worse can happen to me, than that I could die;
resources I can draw upon medical intervention, people around me, family
of a friend, insight and reflection, my own inner strength, e.g. Seg. 12
he would offer me a reducing chemotherapy, Seg. 15 And I had the
advantage, that I had people around me, Seg. 17 I don't know with all the
people, Seg. 26 I really would stand anything;
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6.
my relations with medical staff, e.g. Seg. 13 he probably estimated me

quite well, Seg. 13-he started quite rashly with me, Seg. 18 an oncologist
told me in the hall, Seg. 21 fortunately my oncologist, Seg. 25 doctor
was so gorgeous.
Invited to tell her story, Hanka describes vividly the ups and downs (or, more accurately,
the downs and ups) of her experience of illness. She positions herself with respect
to her own body and the difficult procedures she must endure. But ultimately, and
remarkably, she positions herself as in control of her own fate, whatever happens.
She positively positions herself with respect to the support and resources she is offered,
which not only includes the medical attention she receives, but being especially lucky
with people who want to talk and talk and who give her space to talk as well, and with
her friends and their families who can accept her without a wig. She positions herself
positively towards the emerging inner strength that she is discovering.
She positions herself ambivalently towards the medical staff who treat her, who bring
her good and bad news, but who also can be rash and harsh, supportive and attentive,
unkind and unthoughtful, who can make and keep their promises, and who can look
gorgeous while listening to her telling something over and over again.
The agency and responsibility that Hanka achieves in her fight with cancer, the way she
finds inner strength in the face of death, are acted out and made sense of through the
respective identity positions that she adopts in her story.
CRITICAL ISSUES FOR NOI

Just three critical issues will be discussed here. There is the need, firstly, to do justice to
the full range of narrative phenomena that might be studied; secondly, to acknowledge
the complexities and challenges of interpretive analysis; and thirdly, to achieve
transparency in the methods used.
A major issue for NOI is in attempting to do justice to the full breadth of narrative
phenomena. The types of narrative available to study are disturbingly wide: oral vs.
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written, fictional vs. historical/personal accounts, life-story vs. isolated events, crafted
vs. spontaneous, public vs. private, mediated vs. intersubjective, etc. Narratives
can arise within the context of interview, conversation, family, organization, clinical
encounter, and always within the context of the signifying practices of a wider culture.
Moreover, for each type of narrative and each context, the range of possible research
questions will rise exponentially. In these respects, NOI sets out a framework within
which to deal with this wide diversity of data, but there are very many details still to flesh
out.
There are also critical issues concerned with the collection and analysis of narrative
data. The narrative research interview has variously been described as involving
the joint construction of meaning (Mishler, 1986a), or a shared participation in a
matrix of signification (Josselson and Lieblich, 2001). A reasonable claim is that data
from a narrative interview has obvious face validity, but there may be concerns with
establishing its authenticity. NOI is deeply rooted within the hermeneutic tradition, and
just as an interview involves the joint construction of meaning, so the same applies to
the interpretative process that is involved in data analysis. Whatever interpretations the
research findings offer, they necessarily must be a joint product of both the participant,
as data supplier, and the researcher, as data analyser. This is inescapable, and is a
simple fact of life for any qualitative researcher. There is a serious obstacle here for
many researchers brought up in the positivist tradition, an obstacle that for many will
be insurmountable. However, it is worth noting that this matter is no different to our
everyday meaning-making, e.g. interpreting each others behaviour. So, if we do get by
in our everyday encounters, then why cannot we find suitable criteria for getting by in
our research? This is not an attempt to trivialize the issue. In fact, we cannot dismiss
this problem, nor are we in a position to set out these criteria once and for all. But
we do need to take this problem very seriously. Indeed, it is our belief that with some
patience, and with a rigorous commitment to staying close to the data, a confidence in
our procedures will emerge.
Finally, we would like to stress the critical importance of the notion of transparency.
This is the need to be clear and open about the methods used, and the assumptions
being made which we argue should be recognized as the basic requirement of all
qualitative research. Our point is that transparency is the overriding concern in laying
the groundwork for the critical evaluation needed in writing up research. Methods
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of inquiry, data collection and analysis, if they are to be clear enough for others to
replicate, must be transparent. Note that the emphasis here is on the procedures being
replicable, and not the findings as such this is quite intentional and is an important
difference between qualitative and quantitative inquiry. The rigour of NOI relies on
establishing transparency. This means that not only must we be clear to others about
what we have done and what we have found, but we must also be clear to ourselves, at
every step, and at every stage, about what it is that we are doing. The critical issue for
NOI is to make its procedures transparent.
REFERENCES
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The SAGE Handbook of

Qualitative Research in Psychology

Contributors: Carla WilligWendy Stainton-Rogers

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THE NARRATIVE TURN IN

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Murmurings of what can now be seen as a paradigmatic breakthrough can be traced

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NARRATIVE

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NARRATIVE ORIENTED INQUIRY (NOI)

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The challenges for NOI

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This perspective in effect distinguishes fabula from sjuzet (pronounced sootzay), a

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BOX 9.1 Narrative Text Example: Extract

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Tell me, please, about your experience with breast cancer.

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