The narrative perspective

Narratives help make meaning for an individual, while for a community they help establish a collective understanding. Etymologically, ‘narration’ stems from two different Latin terms: narrare and gnarus. The narrative always contains a performative element that underscores and explains the narrator’s self-concept and identity-related ambitions. Narrative content highlights certain events because the right selection and plot sequences shape the story and the action logic into behaviour patterns that the narrator wishes to convey. The connection between narrating and meaning-making can be viewed as a circular process. Narrative theory is broadly anchored in the social sciences and in qualitative research, with a special focus on understanding the subjects’ life world. Transformative dialogues or coaching presuppose a desire to remedy something, remove the stone in the shoe or learn about something that is important in one’s life. One aspect of the art of lingering in dialogue is the co-creation of narratives.