Table of Contents

Introduction: Life and Myth. Part I: Making Lives Into Stories. The Meaning of Stories. Narrative Tone and Imagery. Theme and Ideological Setting. Becoming the Mythmaker. Part II: Story Characters.Character and Image. Agentic and Communal Characters. Part III: The Mythic Challenge of Adulthood. Identity, Malaise, and Faith. Putting It Together in Mid-life. Generating New Beginnings. Exploring Your Myth. Epilogue: Beyond Story. Appendix 1: Agency and Communion. Appendix 2: Nuclear Episodes.

About the Author

Dan P. McAdams, PhD, is Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, where he is also Director of the Foley Center for the Study of Lives. He has published 12 books and over 100 articles and chapters in the areas of personality and developmental psychology.

Reviews

There's a quiet revolution taking place within psychology and at its forefront is a young personologist named Dan McAdams. To understand ourselves, he says, you have to go beyond 'objective' data to the myths we create about our lives. Here at last is a book that will introduce you to the revolution, and here is a social scientist--a storyteller, too--who will guide you through the intricacies of your own myths. You'll welcome the chance to spend some time with him. --John Kotre, PhD, Coauthor of Seasons of Life, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan

McAdams looks beyond the narrow confines of academic psychology and sheds light on the mysteries of the life cycle. He calls to his aid the contemporary scientific visionaries Erikson, Jaques, and Levinson, and shows how the life stories we create and revise can lead to genuine self-discovery. --Peter M. Newton, PhD, Professor of Psychology, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, California

This wonderful and readable account of the ways in which we use stories across the life cycle and through history provides important new insights into the ways in which we maintain our identity. A compassionate and informed discussion of life-story and life-history, the book will have wide appeal to both students and those working with or studying personality. --Bertram J. Cohler, PhD, William Rainey Harper Professor of Social Sciences in the College and the Departments of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Education, University of Chicago

This the first exciting theory of adult personality development as seen through the eyes of the person, and expressed through the ideas each man and woman tells. A 'must' read for those of us entering mid-life and beyond, who seek to better understand where we came from, where we are now, and where we are going. --Robert Emmons, PhD, University of California at Davis

Dan McAdams' wonderful book is a major event....McAdams has the gift of being able to express complicated and subtle notions with remarkable clarity. --Robert Hogan, PhD, in Contemporary Psychology

This is a wonderful book. Dan McAdams integrates the rigor of modern psychology with the humanity, sensitivity, and complexity of the best fiction. His message is simple, yet profound. We are our stories. This work places Dan McAdams in the forefront of psychology's efforts to understand people in their life contexts. It defines a whole new tradition of scientific inquiry. --William Pinsof, PhD, President, The Family Institute at Northwestern University

I highly recommend this book for classes in pastoral counseling and religious education. In fresh ways, Dan McAdams introduces us to patterns of human development. Grounded in research, the book provides resources for understanding how people build life meanings. The insights of this work complement narrative theology and qualitative research in ministry studies. --Jack L. Seymour, Academic Dean and Professor of Religious Education, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois

Dan McAdam's wonderful new book is a major event....McAdams has the gift of being able to express complicated and subtle notions with remarkable clarity. --Robert Hogan, in Contemporary Psychology
- This is the sort of book around which a narrative psychology course can easily be built....McAdams renders the research literatures from disparate psychological domains (i.e., developmental, social, clinical, and personality) comprehensible and integrated. --Contemporary Psychology, 1/5/1997

There's a quiet revolution taking place within psychology and at its forefront is a young personologist named Dan McAdams. To understand ourselves, he says, you have to go beyond 'objective' data to the myths we create about our lives. Here at last is a book that will introduce you to the revolution, and here is a social scientist--a storyteller, too--who will guide you through the intricacies of your own myths. You'll welcome the chance to spend some time with him. --John Kotre, PhD, Coauthor of Seasons of Life, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan

McAdams looks beyond the narrow confines of academic psychology and sheds light on the mysteries of the life cycle. He calls to his aid the contemporary scientific visionaries Erikson, Jaques, and Levinson, and shows how the life stories we create and revise can lead to genuine self-discovery. --Peter M. Newton, PhD, Professor of Psychology, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, California

This wonderful and readable account of the ways in which we use stories across the life cycle and through history provides important new insights into the ways in which we maintain our identity. A compassionate and informed discussion of life-story and life-history, the book will have wide appeal to both students and those working with or studying personality. --Bertram J. Cohler, PhD, William Rainey Harper Professor of Social Sciences in the College and the Departments of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Education, University of Chicago

This the first exciting theory of adult personality development as seen through the eyes of the person, and expressed through the ideas each man and woman tells. A 'must' read for those of us entering mid-life and beyond, who seek to better understand where we came from, where we are now, and where we are going. --Robert Emmons, PhD, University of California at Davis

Dan McAdams' wonderful book is a major event....McAdams has the gift of being able to express complicated and subtle notions with remarkable clarity. --Robert Hogan, PhD, in Contemporary Psychology

This is a wonderful book. Dan McAdams integrates the rigor of modern psychology with the humanity, sensitivity, and complexity of the best fiction. His message is simple, yet profound. We are our stories. This work places Dan McAdams in the forefront of psychology's efforts to understand people in their life contexts. It defines a whole new tradition of scientific inquiry. --William Pinsof, PhD, President, The Family Institute at Northwestern University

I highly recommend this book for classes in pastoral counseling and religious education. In fresh ways, Dan McAdams introduces us to patterns of human development. Grounded in research, the book provides resources for understanding how people build life meanings. The insights of this work complement narrative theology and qualitative research in ministry studies. --Jack L. Seymour, Academic Dean and Professor of Religious Education, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois

Dan McAdam's wonderful new book is a major event....McAdams has the gift of being able to express complicated and subtle notions with remarkable clarity. --Robert Hogan, in Contemporary Psychology
- This is the sort of book around which a narrative psychology course can easily be built....McAdams renders the research literatures from disparate psychological domains (i.e., developmental, social, clinical, and personality) comprehensible and integrated. --Contemporary Psychology, 1/5/1997

Ranging widely within the canon of Western psychology, McAdams claims to offer a new perspective on personal mythmaking. He discriminates between the collective myths that people inherit and the private myths that individuals create to formulate their identities. Using the terminology of literary narrative study and behavioral psychology, McAdams attempts to combine the two into a new theory of identity. There is a great deal of discussion of themes like grief and intimacy; references to Freud, Erik Erikson, and others; and reviews of the passage from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. While the book is easy reading, its theme has been dealt with before in numerous psychology textbooks. However, it could serve as an introduction to psychology and mythmaking. For large psychology collections.-- Nancy E. Zuwiyya, Binghamton City Sch. Dist., N.Y.