Narratives: The Deep Cognitive Work They Do

We often think of stories as something we tell to share memories or pass the time. But stories do something much deeper: they help us understand how a life takes shape. A narrative doesn’t just say what happened — it helps us see how things unfolded and why they matter.

When someone tells a story about their life, they’re doing more than remembering. They’re tracing the path that led them from one moment to the next. They’re showing how experiences, choices, influences, and even accidents slowly shaped who they became.

That’s the quiet power of narrative. It gives us a way to understand development — the way a life grows, shifts, and becomes itself over time.

Stories Show How Things Connect

A list of events can’t do this. A list is flat. It tells us the “what,” but not the “how.”

A story, on the other hand, reveals connections:

• how early experiences echo forward

• how one decision opens a door and closes another

• how circumstances shape opportunities

• how meaning slowly accumulates

  
  

Narratives help us see the threads that run through a life — threads we often don’t notice until we look back.

Stories Explain Without Reducing

Scientific explanations often look for a single cause or a clear rule. But human lives don’t work that way. They’re shaped by a mix of influences:

• family

• culture

• personality

• timing

• chance

• values

• opportunities

• constraints

No single theory can capture all of that. But a story can.

A narrative lets us hold all these influences together without forcing them into a formula. It shows how they interact in one particular life — this person, in this place, at this moment in history.

That’s why narratives feel true in a way theories sometimes don’t. They honor the complexity of real life.

Stories Aren’t Just About Emotion

Stories can be emotional, of course. But their real strength isn’t emotional drama — it’s developmental insight.

Even in fields like geology or evolutionary biology, scientists use narrative to explain how something formed over time. They tell the story of a mountain range or a species because that’s the clearest way to show development.

The same is true for human lives. The emotional arc is optional. The developmental arc is essential.

Stories Help Us Understand Ourselves

When people engage in life review or storytelling — especially in later life — something powerful happens. They begin to see their life as a whole rather than as a scattered set of memories.

They start to notice:

• patterns they didn’t realize were there

• turning points that changed everything

• values that guided them even when they weren’t aware of it

• strengths that kept showing up

• moments of meaning that still resonate

This isn’t just reminiscing. It’s a form of understanding. Narrative helps people make sense of how they became who they are.

The Gift of Seeing a Life as a Whole

When we help someone tell their story, we’re not just gathering information. We’re helping them see the shape of their life — the way experiences, relationships, challenges, and choices have woven together over time.

A story lets us see:

• how identity forms

• how meaning emerges

• how resilience develops

• how purpose takes shape

• how a life becomes itself

This is the deep cognitive function of narrative. It’s why stories matter — not just as entertainment, but as tools for understanding ourselves and the world.

Reference

Stueber, Karsten. “The Cognitive Function of Narratives.” In The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory, Routledge, 2022.