The Mess Inside: Narrative, Emotion, and the Mind

199 Pages·2012·0.709 MB·English

by  Peter Goldie

The Mess Inside
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The Mess Inside
Narrative, Emotion, and the Mind
Peter Goldie
1
3
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To Sophie
As a rule is it with great difficulty that men abandon their physio-
logicalmemoriesandthemouldinwhichtheyarecastbyheredity;
todosoamanmustbeeitherparticularlyunpassionedandfeatureless
or absorbed in abstract pursuits. The impersonality of mathematics
andtheunhumanobjectivityofnaturedonotcallforththosesidesof
the soul and do not awaken them; but as soon as we touch upon
questions of life, of art, of morals, in which a man is not only an
observerandinvestigatorbutatthesametimehimselfaparticipant,
thenwefindaphysiologicallimit—whichitisveryhardtocrosswith
one’soldbloodandbrainsunlessonecanerasefromthemalltracesof
the songs of the cradle, of the fields and the hills of home, of the
customsandwholesettingofthepast.
(AlexanderHerzen,MyPastandThoughts)
He would reason about people’s conduct as though a man were
assimpleafigureas,say,twostickslaidacrosseach other;whereas
amanismuchmoreliketheseawhosemovementsaretoocompli-
catedtoexplain,andwhosedepthsmaybringupGodonlyknows
whatatanymoment.
(JosephConrad,TheWarrior’sSoul)
Contents
PrefaceandAcknowledgements ix
1. NarrativeThinking 1
Introduction:FindingtheRightPlaceforNarrativeinOurLives 1
WhataNarrativeIs 2
NarrativeStructure 13
Conclusion 25
2. NarrativeThinkingaboutOne’sPast 26
Introduction:InternalandExternalPerspectivesinNarrativeThinking 26
DramaticIrony 26
AsWeGrowUp:DivergingPerspectivesinLiteratureandinRealLife 30
FreeIndirectStyleandtheNarrator’sExternalPerspective 32
AutobiographicalNarrativeThinkingandtheProblemoftheAudience 40
AutobiographicalMemoryandGeneralEvents 43
FreeIndirectStyleandMemory 48
ConstructionnotRetrieval 53
Conclusion 54
3. Grief:ACaseStudy 56
Introduction:TheNarratableProcessofGrief 56
GriefisNotaKindofMentalStateorEvent 57
GriefisaKindofProcess 61
TheNarrativeofaGrieving:FreeIndirectStyleandGeneralEvents 64
TwoNarrativeAccountsofGrief 67
TraumaticExperienceandtheDesireforEmotionalClosure 70
TellingtoOthers 72
ShowingtoOthers 74
Conclusion 75
4. NarrativeThinkingaboutOne’sFuture 76
Introduction:ImaginationandEmotionasGuidesinPracticalReason 76
Imagination,Emotion,andBranchingPossibilities 76
Regret,andLearningfromOurMistakes 85
Planning,Policies,andCharacter 89
LearningtoSeeandtoFeel 91
Conclusion 97
viii CONTENTS
5. Self-forgiveness:ACaseStudy 98
Introduction:TheParadoxicalAppearanceofSelf-forgiveness 98
ForgivenessofOthers 99
TheRelationbetweenForgivenessofOthersandSelf-forgiveness 101
Why,andinWhatCircumstances,DoWeNeedSelf-forgiveness? 102
TheNormsofSelf-forgivenessandtheNarrativeSenseofSelf 106
PardonandSelf-forgiveness 110
Conclusion 116
6. TheNarrativeSenseofSelf 117
Introduction:AMetaphysically‘Light’SenseofSelf 117
TheNarrativeSenseofSelf 118
TheNarrativeSenseofSelf,PersonalIdentity,andSurvival 124
TheStableSelfandNarrativeSelf-constitution 128
TheStableSelfandEmpathicAccess 132
TheStableSelfanditsEpistemicDifficulties 135
TheMistakenIdealoftheStableSelf 142
MakingupOurMindsandBreakdownsinNarrativity 146
Conclusion 148
7. Narrative,Truth,Life,andFiction 150
Introduction:TruthandObjectivityandtheDangersofour
FictionalizingTendencies 150
ThePossibilityofTruthinNarrative 152
ThePossibilityofObjectivityinNarrative 155
TheFirstFictionalizingTendency:WePlotOutOurLives 161
TheSecondFictionalizingTendency:FindingAgencyinthe
WorldWhereItIsNot 162
TheThirdFictionalizingTendency:NarrativeThreadandthe
DesireforClosure 164
TheFourthFictionalizingTendency:GenreandCharacter 168
ASummaryandaSpeculation 171
Conclusion 173
References 174
Index 183
Preface and Acknowledgements
This book is about the ways in which we think about our lives—our
present,ourpast,andourfuture—innarrativeterms.
Chapter 1 introduces the contentious notion of narrative. I argue,
contrary to many views, that narratives need not be publicly narrated,
butcanbejustthoughtthroughinactsofnarrativethinking.InChapter1,
Ialsointroducethenotionofperspective,graspofwhichisessentialtoa
proper grasp of narratives. A perspective can be internal to a narrative,
being the perspective of a ‘character’ in the narrative, or the perspective
canbeexternaltothenarrative,beingtheperspectiveofforexample,the
narrator,ortheaudience.Theseperspectivescan,ofcourse,diverge.
Chapter 2 develops the notion of perspective in autobiographical nar-
rativethinking,wherethenarrator,withhisorherexternalperspective,is
theverysamepersonasthe‘character’inthenarrative.Thesepotentially
divergingperspectivesareattheheartofnarrativethinkingaboutourpast,
and I show this through the idea of dramatic irony in autobiographical
narrativethinking,whereyounowknowthingsaboutyourpastthatyou
then,inthepast,didnotknow.Andthisinturnallowsmetointroducea
notion familiar in literary theory and narratology, but little discussed in
philosophy:thenotionoffreeindirectstyle,whichisaliterarydevicethat
is very common in modern literature. Very roughly, with free indirect
style it becomes unclear whether the perspective being expressed in the
narrative is that of a character internal to the narrative or that of the
narrator. Drawing on some of the fascinating recent empirical work on
personal memories, I then show how our memories of our past can be
infused with the irony of what we now know, and what we now feel
about what we now know, through the psychological equivalent of free
indirectstyle.
InChapter3,asakindofcasestudy,Iapplytheseideastonarrativesof
grief,and,morewidely,ofnarrativesofpasttraumaticexperiences.Against
the vast majority of contemporary philosophical views about emotion,
Iarguethatgrief(andIbelieveotheremotionstoo)isakindofprocess,not
a kind of mental state or event. Furthermore, I argue, a narrative is the
ideal kind of account of the process of grief. I then discuss how our