A narrative approach to health psychology: background and potential

Over the past 10 years there has been increasing debate about the positivist assumptions underlying mainstream psychology and of the other social, and indeed physical, sciences. A narrative approach to psychology has attracted substantial interest. This perspective argues, basically, that human beings are natural storytellers and that the exchange of stories permeates our everyday social interaction. The task of a narrative psychology, and of a narrative social science, is to explore the different stories told, not only for the insight they provide into the actual character of the experience described by the storyteller but for the insight they offer into the identity of the storyteller and of the culture in which she or he lives. The purpose of this article is to examine the background to this particular antipositivist turn; to explore its impact on different disciplines and subdisciplines of psychology; and to consider its potential contribution to health psychology.