The Narrative Brain

An investigation of the emotional power of narrative that illuminates the relationship between the human brain and the stories we tell

As humans, we think in stories—stories that allow us to feel and share emotions. In order for this phenomenon to work, our brains and the ways in which we tell stories must be attuned to each other. But how exactly does this happen?

Tapping into the essence of thinking in stories, Fritz Breithaupt draws on the latest scientific research, including a retelling study (comparable to the telephone game) with more than 12,000 participants, and experiments in which ChatGPT functions as storyteller. This wide-ranging study includes analyses of political history, novels, fairy tales, and everyday office gossip; proposes a new theory of narrative that focuses on emotions and affects; and hypothesizes on the evolution of narratives among our hominid ancestors. Redefining us as beings who anchor ourselves in the world through narratives, Breithaupt introduces a new kind of psychology that cuts to the core of how and why humans feel the need to tell stories.

“If humans were fish, our water would be narratives. . . . We use narratives to understand the causal influences in our lives. . . . Breithaupt attempts to deconstruct these processes and reveal how they work, going between high abstraction and specific cases.”—Matthew Hutson, Wall Street Journal

“Breithaupt explores why we render the world in stories—and how the rewards of narrative thinking keep us spinning out yarns. . . . Its invitation to reimagine ill-­fitting stories makes [The Narrative Brain] a timely corrective to our fierce zest for certainty.”—Elizabeth Svoboda, Scientific American

“In this piquant inquiry, Breithaupt explores why humans tell stories. . . . His theories about the functions and rewards of storytelling stimulate.”—Publishers Weekly

“The Narrative Brain is a uniquely interdisciplinary exploration of the emotional rewards of narrative thinking. This witty, imaginative, and genre-crossing book changes everything we thought we knew about how stories satisfy their readers.”—Lisa Zunshine, author of The Secret Life of Literature

“In this masterful synthesis of science and the humanities, Fritz Breithaupt crafts a convincing and exhilarating story of how humans shape the narratives that, in turn, shape us.”—Robert Goldstone, executive editor, Current Directions in Psychological Science
 

“This innovative book invites readers to engage with their own lives as ‘story’ by laying out the narratological basis of our interactions, identities, memories, and intergenerational legacies.”—Anette Schwarz, Cornell University

“A brilliant, groundbreaking, and delightful book.”—Angus Fletcher, author of Wonderworks: Literary Invention and the Science of Stories

“Fritz Breithaupt applies the concept and analysis of narration to a practice of consciousness that we all perform daily, inviting his readers to enjoy a productive reflection on their own existence.”—Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, author of Production of Presence
 
“Fritz Breithaupt expands our understanding of the co-creating reader, who entertains multiple possible directions, possibilities, and outcomes of a narrative while reading.”—Suzanne Keen, author of Empathy and the Novel

“Fritz Breithaupt seamlessly weaves humanistic studies and scientific methods into a grand picture of what narration, the capability of telling stories, accomplishes for human existence.”—Rüdiger Campe, Yale University

“Everyone is talking about narratives. Finally there is a book to explain what’s really behind them.”—Wolfram Eilenberger, author of The Visionaries and Time of the Magicians
 

Fritz Breithaupt is Provost Professor of Cognitive Science and Germanic Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he directs the Experimental Humanities Lab, and a regular guest professor at St. Gallen University in Switzerland. His books include The Dark Sides of Empathy. He lives in Bloomington, IN.

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