Narrative Psychology

I'm really interested in the concept of narrative structures having the most influence on our behavior and decisions.  Stories have the power to influence us in ways we probably aren't aware.  We know they can be inspirational and life-changing; but how many of them operate on us unconsciously, particularly when we are young?  I expect they play an enormous role, as the vehicle by which Jungian archetypes are injected into the personalities of youth.  The implication is that Shakespeare was right; the world really is a stage, and we are just playing roles.

Speaking for myself, countless fairy tales, movies and books had a profound influence on my perception of the world, probably so much that they influenced the course of my life.  Even as a young adult I can think of several film icons that influenced my behavior: Hannibal Lecter, Jeffrey Goines, Ian Malcolm.  The archetype I wanted to project through these stories was the mysterious genius, and this had a tremendous impact on the decisions I made as a young adult.

Narratives shape who we are.  We ignore stories that don't fit how we want to project ourselves.  We give them less merit, lower ratings, say they're overrated.  What we're really saying is they don't resonate strongly enough with our world-view and the perceptions we need to confirm it.  Plenty of movies and books have gotten low ratings from me that were objectively better than I gave them credit for, simply because they didn't appeal to my personality.  They had less potential to influence me due to the fulfillment of desires based on what I wanted to project.  This may seem obvious to a middle-aged adult, but when you're young and impressionable it's far different.