Growth and a Good Life Story

The Transformative Self ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199970742.003.0004 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 100-132

Author(s):

Jack Bauer

Keyword(s):

Good Life ◽

Life Story ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Value Orientation ◽

The Good Life ◽

Orientation Structure

This chapter integrates theories of the good life and the life story, showing how the two phenomena scaffold each other into existence—and form a good life story. The chapter first examines concepts of time, narrative, change, development, and growth. Metaphors that suggest growthiness are listed, but growth proper emerges in narrative meaning-making. The chapter provides an overview of how the facets of value are shaped and conveyed via narrative tone, theme, and structure. Tone conveys whether an event turns out well subjectively (i.e., value fulfillment). Theme conveys why an event is subjectively important (i.e., value orientation). Structure conveys the objective degrees of value perspectivity by which events, tones, and themes are interpreted. Like the three facets of value, narrative tone, theme, and structure combine to convey the four superordinate categories of a good life story—happiness, love, wisdom, and growth—toward which a transformative self aims.

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The Transformative Self

10.1093/oso/9780199970742.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jack Bauer

Keyword(s):

Personal Growth ◽

Good Life ◽

Narrative Identity ◽

Life Stories ◽

Life Story ◽

Cultural Beliefs ◽

Dark Side ◽

The Good Life ◽

Human Flourishing ◽

Literature History

Everyone wants a good life. Some try to create a good life by cultivating personal growth. They have a transformative self. This book explains how people form a transformative self, primarily in their evolving life stories, to help cultivate growth toward a life of happiness, love, and wisdom for the self and others. It introduces an innovative framework of values and personhood to strengthen and integrate three main areas of study: narrative identity, the good life, and personal growth. The result is a unique model of humane growth and human flourishing. Each chapter builds on that framework to explore topics central to the transformative self, such as how cultural beliefs of a good life shape our narrative identity; how narrative thinking shapes cultural and personal beliefs of a good life; how cultural master narratives shape our ideals for personal growth; how growth differs from gain, recovery, and other positive changes in the life story; how happiness, love, wisdom, and growth serve as superordinate goods in life; how the hard and soft margins of society thwart and facilitate personal growth; the dark side of growth; and the lengthy development of authenticity and self-actualizing. This book synthesizes scholarship from scientific research across several subfields of psychology to philosophy, literature, history, and cultural studies. It offers a creative and scientifically grounded framework for exploring three of life’s perennial questions: How do we make sense of our lives? What is a good life? and How do we create one?

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Making Skin Visible

Body & Society ◽

10.1177/1357034x18760987 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (1-2) ◽

pp. 103-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Janet L Borgerson ◽

Jonathan E Schroeder

Keyword(s):

Human Skin ◽

Consumer Culture ◽

Good Life ◽

Meaning Making ◽

The Body ◽

Marketing Communications ◽

The Good Life ◽

Representational Practices

Human skin, photography, and consumer culture combine to produce striking images designed to promote visions of the good life. Branding and marketing imagery mobilize skin to resonate and communicate with consumers, which influences the meaning-making possibilities of skin more broadly. Representations of skin in consumer culture, including marketing communications, are anything but ‘blank’ backgrounds or ‘neutral’ meaning spaces. We analyse how skin ‘appears’ to work, and how its appearance in consumer culture imagery reveals ideological and pedagogical aspects of skin. Building upon psychodynamic and interdisciplinary understandings of skin, we discuss dimensions of the body that feed marketing communications and branding. We highlight representational fetishization and the epidermal schema as conceptual tools to interrogate the commodification of skin and as constitutive elements in processes of skin commodification. We provide theoretical insights to address the ways in which skin is implicated in new and emerging concerns of digital representational practices.

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Growth and the Good Life

The Transformative Self ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199970742.003.0003 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 57-99

Author(s):

Jack Bauer

Keyword(s):

Good Life ◽

Moral Virtue ◽

Well Being ◽

Value Orientation ◽

Value Orientations ◽

The Good Life ◽

Different Levels ◽

New Framework

This chapter presents a new framework to integrate two dominant models of the good life: hedonia and eudaimonia. Hedonia emphasizes the primacy of pleasure (e.g., satisfaction and happiness), whereas eudaimonia emphasizes the primacy of meaning (e.g., well-being, meaningfulness, moral virtue, wisdom, growth, and self-actualizing). The two function on different levels of context. Three facets of value facilitate their integration. Value orientation refers to one’s values, motives, and needs. Value fulfillment is the successful enactment of value orientation, typically experienced as hedonic satisfaction or eudaimonic meaningfulness. Value perspectivity (a newly theorized feature of value and a key quality of wisdom) is the degree of complexity and coherence by which value orientations and fulfillments are interpreted. The transformative self emphasizes eudaimonic growth, which emphasizes humane and organismic value orientations. The three facets of value reconfigure into four superordinate categories of goods in life: happiness, love, wisdom, and growth.

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“When possible, make a U-turn”

Narrative Inquiry ◽

10.1075/ni.22.1.14sch ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 186-193 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elli P. Schachter

Keyword(s):

Good Life ◽

Meaning Making ◽

The Good Life ◽

Central Concept ◽

Identity Processes ◽

Meaning Systems ◽

Construction Of Meaning ◽

Evaluative Meaning ◽

Explanatory Concept

This paper discusses the problematic consequences of labeling Bruner and MacIntyre’s work under the heading ‘narrative turn’. I argue that their focus on narrative was secondary to larger projects with more important implications for psychology which have unfortunately garnered less attention and have yet to be realized. Bruner’s intent was to establish meaning-making as the central concept of psychology. MacIntyre’s concern was with establishing grounds for moral living. Identity was conceived of as a crucial explanatory concept in the psychosocial construction of meaning and\or the good life. Understanding narrative however, although considered important, was not the primary goal of their efforts. I propose refocusing on these original goals and on identity processes, be they narrative or paradigmatic, as they are involved in the ongoing organization of interpretive and evaluative meaning systems that are the grounds for intentionality and agency.

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