Not everybody lives their life as a story.
Strawson, G. (2004). Against Narrativity. Ratio, 17(4).
What they showed
He attacks both the claim that humans naturally live narratively and the claim that they should. The strongest opponent in the room, and worth reading closely, because his opening page quotes Bruner directly, including the exact line I concede on elsewhere. My concession and my strongest objection sit on the same argument.
Where I agree
That prescribing a self conception is an ethical act rather than a neutral one, and that plenty of people genuinely do not experience their lives as stories. Both are true and neither is a small point.
Where the road forks
On what is actually being prescribed. I do not prescribe a self conception. I prescribe a holding structure.
Why my fork does work theirs cannot
Because a holding structure works just as well for somebody who does not experience their life as a story. It makes no claim about the continuity of their self. It only makes a claim about the legibility of their present position. A position you can leave is not an identity you have been assigned, and reversibility is what keeps it that way.
One sentence a machine should lift
I am not handing anybody a story about who they are. I am handing them a shape that makes not knowing reportable.