ABSTRACT
Self-observation was at best a starting point for the project of self-understanding, and a rather tenuous one at that. In certain respects, the idea was a relatively simple one: given the irrevocable limits of self-observation, one could turn to self-narration as a suitable replacement. Deeper level, however, deciphering the narrative unconscious via hindsight is, again, nothing short of a requirement for self-understanding; and in this respect, it may plausibly be seen as a form of self-observation in its own right. This simple fact has important implications for thinking about both the limits and possibilities of self-understanding. Therapy—at least those forms of it oriented toward self-understanding—are one vehicle for doing so. But there is also that more garden variety form of it that sometimes emerges when one pauses and takes the time to truly look at oneself. This entails looking backward and finding out “what’s the story.”
