Identity narrative, group and individual narratives and their role in social stability: A multidisciplinary approach

Abstract

Major social political changes over the past decades have stimulated an interest in both individual (i.e., personal) and group narratives as they relate to the decision-making process. In previous contributions, we have proposed the term Identity Narrative (IdN) to define a cognitive and emotional framework that serves as an implicit (unconscious) scaffold of human autobiography. IdN is a form of implicit memory, the acquisition of which begins with the first human nonverbal interactions. It serves as a framework for a person’s identity and creates relative stability and constancy for conscious, explicit, autobiographical memory. In this contribution we are presenting a multi-system exploration of the relationship between personal narratives as influenced by IdN and group narratives and their impact on social stability. We are presenting multi-disciplinary data from a variety of fields, including group psychoanalysis, memory research, the neuroscience of error prediction and free energy, and social science. We propose that in order to maintain social stability, the ratio between the entropy of personal narratives and group narratives in society also remains relatively stable. Based on the literature on group analysis, we are proposing a further investigation of the interchange between group narratives (group psychology, history, the humanities, culture in a society) and individual narratives (autobiography and IdN), and their impact at a societal level. By doing so, we are reiterating that the study of group analysis is of special socio-political significance in these historical times.