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In this article, I outline what are, in my view, the major conceptual and institutional weaknesses of narrative psychology. However, because my objective is to legitimatize narrative as an alternative vision of psychology, I frame these criticisms as challenges for narrative psychologists to overcome. I argue that narrative psychology has not clearly defined the meaning, scope and basic principles of a narrative approach. I ask: What does narrative mean? Is narrative ethnocentric? Is narrative a science? Can narrative reconcile with the mainstream without losing its critical spirit? Can narrative survive in the academy? Although the challenges are significant, I argue that narrative psychology offers the promise of a systematic form of inquiry that explores meaning and intention in human lives. Narrative research promises to bring us closer to the real subject matter of psychological investigation, that of human intention and meaning, in its appropriate interpretive context.

The last three decades in the development of human sciences have been marked by an explosion of interest in narrative both as an object of study and as a methodological tool – this tendency has gained such momentum that it has been defined as a "narrativist turn". Since the 1980s psychology has witnessed an exponential growth of research and teaching activity focusing on narrative leading to the emergence of narrative psychology. As a distinct field of inquiry narrative psychology is characterized by the elaboration of models of personality and self based on narrative principles. The present study provides the first comparative analysis and critical reading of three major streams of narrative psychology centring on their leading figures: Don McAdams's narrative identity, Hubert Hermans's dialogical self theory and Michael White and David Epston's narrative therapy. The three approaches demonstrate some evident commonalities: all of them address meaning and intention in human lives; they are all rooted not only in psychological discourse but also in philosophy and interdisciplinary cultural theory; all of them have borrowed their key metaphors from literary studies and literature. Furthermore, all of them simultaneously encompass theoretical issues, research methods and therapeutic intervention and engage with political debates. However, while McAdams, Hermans, and White and Epston all share commitment to narrative their respective positions are uniquely different. These differences are particularly evident in the respective treatment of such issues as conceptualization of subject and specifically, coherence of self versus its decentred character; stability and continuity of self versus malleability, fluidity and change; methodological considerations and procedures and last but not least the ethical implications of each of the approaches. To a large extent the differences in the treatments of these issues that are seen in the three approaches can be attributed to their respective positions on a continuum from modernist to postmodern views. Adopting interdisciplinary approach this study investigates the historical context of the emergence and development of McAdams's narrative identity, Hermans's dialogical self theory and White and Epston's narrative therapy and articulates insights and promises of these models. It identifies their far-reaching consequences in addressing a number of critical for psychology issues: personhood and agency, continuity and change, methodological issues and ethical dimensions of psychological theory and practice. It also critically interrogates the limitations of these approaches and offers ways of extending narrative theorising in psychology by drawing on a number of resources from philosophy and literary studies. A particular novelty of the present study relates to its broad framework that integrates Western and Russian perspectives and outlines new ways of mobilising Russian psychological heritage and contemporary scholarship. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that while the emergence of narrative psychology has been facilitated by the shift from modern rationality to postmodern thought and from a modern ways of life to postmodern experience, the importance of narrative psychology stretches beyond postmodern development. If postmodernism had focused on valorising difference and questioning the truth the current shift of concern refocuses attention on valorizing singularity and the overarching questioning of good. In this context, as this thesis affirms, narrative approach to the subject, change, methodologies and ethics provides a means to analyse these concerns in both theory and practice.

Since early legal, medical and scientific discussions of homosexuality, the discipline of psychology has assumed an instrumental role in both maintaining and challenging cultural and political perspectives on same-sex desire, identity and behaviour. This article presents a critical historical review of psychological research on same-sex desire in the United States, with a focus on the way in which studies reflect three master narratives on the nature and meaning of same-sex attraction: (1) a sickness script that dominated the majority of research from the late 1800s to the 1970s; (2) a species script that became popular with the removal of homosexuality as a diagnosable mental illness in 1973 and initiated several new lines of research; and (3) a subject script inspired by scholarly and cultural shifts beginning in the 1990s that challenged the taxonomy of sexual identity. We conclude with a discussion of the transformative potential of a narrative approach that integrates analysis of historical forces and individual psychological development. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Since early legal, medical and scientific discussions of homosexuality, the discipline of psychology has assumed an instrumental role in both maintaining and challenging cultural and political perspectives on same-sex desire, identity and behaviour. This article presents a critical historical review of psychological research on same-sex desire in the United States, with a focus on the way in which studies reflect three master narratives on the nature and meaning of same-sex attraction: (1) a sickness script that dominated the majority of research from the late 1800s to the 1970s; (2) a species script that became popular with the removal of homosexuality as a diagnosable mental illness in 1973 and initiated several new lines of research; and (3) a subject script inspired by scholarly and cultural shifts beginning in the 1990s that challenged the taxonomy of sexual identity. We conclude with a discussion of the transformative potential of a narrative approach that integrates analysis of historical forces and individual psychological development. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

15. Lumping, Splitting, and Narratives as Rhetorical Actions: Notes on Christina J. Pan's Reminiscences and Deborah Eisenberg's "Twilight of the Superheroes"16. Who Tells Whose Story? Beyond Everyday and Literary Stories, Fact and Fiction; 17. Narrative and Truth: Some Preliminary Notes; 18. Witnessing the Impact: 9/​11 in Everyday and Literary Stories; Afterword: Narrative and Life: From "So What?" to "What Next?"; Contributor Biographies; Index

In this study of exile, Sean Akerman chronicles the ways in which narrative approaches provide opportunities to understand and represent the lives of those who have been displaced after violence. Drawing on fieldwork he conducted with Tibetan exiles in New York City, and supplemented with archival research from other exilees around the world, Akerman investigates how narrative approaches can reveal what it's like to embody historical tensions, how identity becomes contested within displaced groups, and how personal stories become ingrained into the responsibilities of political realities.

In this article, I re-examine Jerome Bruner's vision of narrative psychology that he laid out over two decades ago. In particular, I argue that narrative inquiry must focus on identities located in sociocultural contexts of transnational movement and migration. The contact of self with multiple forms of otherness — both subtle and violent — play a significant role in identity formation. I discuss two examples from the Somalian and Indian diaspora to show how the study of these fractured, shifting, and hybridized identities provide a very valuable site from which narrative psychology has an opportunity to remake itself as a field that continues to be relevant in a world that is rapidly becoming transnational, diverse, and global.

Speaking of Violence takes the notion of "narrative" as foundational to conflict analysis and resolution. Distinct from conflict theories that rely on accounts of attitudes or perceptions in the heads of individuals, this narrative perspective presumes that meaning, structured and organized as narrative processes, is the location for both analysis of conflict, as well as intervention.

'Stories Changing Lives' analyzes the strong significance of personal stories for social change. The text brings to the fore the multimodalities of narratives; the value of multiple stories, genres, positions, and intersectionalities; and the interdisciplinarity, historical reach, and transnationalism of narrative research.

Argues that 'narrative hermeneutics' serves as a vitally important vehicle for addressing and redressing current social and political problems. Hanna Meretoja and Mark Freeman have gathered an interdisciplinary group of esteemed authors to explore how interpretation is relevant to the current discussions in narrative studies and to the broader debate that revolves around issues of truth, facts, and narrative. Addressing topics from the dangers of political narratives to questions of truth in medical and psychiatric practice, they emphasize that narrative is a cultural meaning-making practice that is integral to how we make sense of who we are and who we could be.

Over the past 25 years, narrative theories and methods have helped to revitalize the discipline of personality psychology by providing new tools and concepts for discerning the inner patterning and meaning of human lives and by helping to recontextualize personality studies in terms of culture, gender, class, ethnicity, and the social ecology of everyday life. This article (a) briefly traces recent historical developments in personality psychology as they relate to the increasing influence of narrative approaches; (b) describes a three-tiered conceptual framework for understanding personality in terms of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and life stories; and (c) illustrates one important research program on life stories in personality — studies of the redemptive self.