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“But Wait, It Gets Even Weirder…”: The Meaning of Stories

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The Experience of Meaning in Life

Abstract

In this chapter, we elaborate on how stories can be used to provide meaning in life via two very different pathways: the personal and deep reflection on the personal past to construct meaning-laden stories about how one has come to be and the humorous entertainment-oriented storytelling that provides a sense of social connection and purpose. We review research on narrative identity and the importance of using personal stories to understand the self and construct an identity. We also expand prior work on “identity deep” and “identity light” to better understand different mechanisms for defining the self and finding meaning in life.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Monisha Pasupathi for her comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript and Rebecca Goodvin for her insights about existential absurdity, as well as comments on a prior version of this manuscript. Finally, we thank Lewis Jones for helping us to bring clarity to our argument and for pushing us to more deeply consider the lightness and the darkness in stories.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

    Kate C. McLean & Sarah Morrison-Cohen

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  1. Kate C. McLean
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  2. Sarah Morrison-Cohen
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Correspondence to Kate C. McLean .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Psychology, Texas A&M University, TAMU 4235, College Station, 77843, Texas, USA

    Joshua A. Hicks

  2. , Dept of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Minard Hall, Fargo, 58105, North Dakota, USA

    Clay Routledge

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McLean, K.C., Morrison-Cohen, S. (2013). “But Wait, It Gets Even Weirder…”: The Meaning of Stories. In: Hicks, J., Routledge, C. (eds) The Experience of Meaning in Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6527-6_16

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