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Abstract: Embodied narratives can help to regulate the activity of the emotional and visceral activity of the brain and wider nervous system. When heartbeat is elevated and breathing quickens as a result of a stress inducing situation, self-talk can help to regulate those visceral responses (although not always). What though is the structure of that self-talk? Arguably, it consists of simple commands - ‘breathe slowly’, ‘stay calm’, ‘stay focussed’, etc. However, we argue that these are simply reminders of longer narrative explanations that constitute self-talk (which may originate with others) and it is these longer narratives that play a coherence and meaning making role for the regulation of limbic and autonomic activity.  

Social narratives regulate our responses to the actions and life ways of others. Not only do we use them to understand others (as constitutive of our social cognitive lives), but also to communicate and deliberate with others. These deliberations often make normative claims and judgements about the character traits, actions and intentions of others, but also mitigating factors about the social situation in which those agents find themselves. We will argue that social narratives are contested and revisable in these public deliberations with others. Of critical importance is the way that our self-narratives, our narratives about others and the social and moral norms that we use to evaluate ourselves and others can be significantly altered by harmful narratives that assail us through interactions with others and various media.

In this talk we will outline the nature of embodied and social narratives and their regulative role and then discuss ways in which those narratives can dysregulate our mental and social lives.