The Narrative Brain: The Stories Our Neurons Tell

“‘As Homo narrans, we aren’t just beings who are being told stories, but beings who tell and retell stories ourselves.’”

Breithaupt takes readers on a journey through the narrative brain, using a new psychology to explore his theory that the brain has a relationship with the stories we tell and shapes these narratives that, in turn, shape us.

Everyone has a story. (Humans of Judaism, Nikki Schreiber, Letters, Kate Edgar)

But not everyone knows why these narratives endure. And what happens to the neurons and synapses in our brains. In The Narrative Brain, cognitive scientist Fritz Breithaupt explores a new psychology that shows why humans need to tell stories. “Spinning yarns will reap rewards and enable us to make sense of our world. However, narratives can also have a negative effect.”

The author’s research from neuroscientists and psychology culminated in this book, which is different from other books on the brain. Most books on the brain describe the details of the workings of the brain (The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge). Breithaupt proposes that there is another part of the brain called “the narrative brain” that is activated when we tell stories. “The approach of this book is to view the brain as a dynamic mediator among biological processes, brain activations, cultural contexts, and environmental pressures.” Narratives are passed on from one generation to the next and from person to person in the telling each one makes these stories their own. “As Homo narrans, we aren’t just beings who are being told stories, but beings who tell and retell stories ourselves.”

The author proposes that the narrative brain has evolved to encode experiences and to share them as stories. He cites telephone games and Chinese whisper as examples. In telephone games, people sit in a circle. The first person whispers a word, then each one repeats it. By the time the last person is reached, it becomes a different word. “Retelling reveals what has taken root in a narrator’s mind and how she remembers, summaries, and makes sense of events. Retelling allows us to compare what is dropped and what is accentuated between the original and the retelling.”

The author continues to explore his research findings from experimental psychologists, Sigmund Freud, and fairy tales by the brothers Grimm. “Vulnerability is positively sanctioned and elevated as a value in the fairy tale. In the fairy tale, the heroes are rewarded for merely displaying vulnerability.”

Emotions are the center of narrative thinking. “This means that someone has a theory of the mind of someone else. Human re-tellers tend to change the majority of words and concepts in a story when they pass it on. To explain this outcome, we have suggested that emotions stick in memory particularly clearly and become the anchor to which stories can be tied.”

Narratives have a beginning and an end but there is a change in the middle. “Central to narratives are the appraisals of the situations and especially of the situations at the end. This is what I call narrative emotions, namely, the emotions the audience receives from engaging in the situations and characters of the story. . . . In fiction, we choose a character of a story and rejoice and suffer with him or her. (Why We Read What We Read, John Heath and Lisa Adams)

The emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger and shame reflect the same ones in our lives.

The book explores novelty, surprise and laughter. “In short, surprises in narratives are not always positive or automatically rewarding, the unexpected can offer the reward of movement, novelty, intellectual titillation, and delight.” This exploration continues that laughter is a diffusion of embarrassment. “Humor here becomes a narrative affect that diffuses a dicey situation and at the same time brings it to a close . . . those who arrange their lives in humorous narrative episodes are both liberated and rewarded.” He continues his insights into playability and the possibility for a better future.

Breithaupt gives a warning that addiction to narratives can cast the readers as victims. Therefore, the stories may not be rewarding when justice does not prevail. “Works of art can generate negative feelings such as fear, anxiety, and envy. . . . ugly feelings such as envy or anxiety reveal the malfunctioning of narrative arcs . . . however, even if a negative sequence comes to an end, it is at least over. The work of mourning can begin.” However, narratives can be the medium of our unhappiness, but they are also the means of escaping it by narrative flexibility.

“A narratively enlightened consciousness is one that is willingly captivated and guided by narratives but at the same time is aware of the unleashing potential of stories.”

Includes notes for each chapter and an extensive bibliography for further reading on the narrative brain.