The Healing Power of Stories - Softcover

Taylor, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0717125009 ISBN 13: 9780717125005

Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 1996

Synopsis

TELL ME A STORY explores the story-shaped nature of our lives. Each of us is the product of all the stories we have ever heard-and of many of which we are unaware. These stories shape how we see ourselves, the world, and our place in it. The first great storytellers in our lives are home, school, popular culture, and, perhaps, church. Knowing and embracing healthy stories are crucial to living rightly and well.This book investigates the relationship between stories and meaning in life, the difference between character and personality, the ability of story to make connections between things, the power of story to bring about a desired future, how stories create community and a sense of belonging, and how broken stories can be healed.The book is rooted in psychological, literary, and theological research into the nature of story, but is written in a personal, engaging voice. It includes a series of questions designed to help readers identify the important stories in their own lives.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Taylor, professor of literature at Bethel University (Minnesota), has written six books, including The Myth of Certainty, Letters to My Children, and In Search of Sacred Places. Dr. Taylor is co-founder of The Legacy Center, an organization devoted to helping individuals preserve their stories and values, and a contributing editor of Books and Culture. Speaks frequently.

From Kirkus Reviews

Although the title implies a self-help book, this is no pop psychology how-to but an old-fashioned moral essay that speaks of character and values. Taylor (English/Bethel College; Letters to My Children, not reviewed) believes that stories make it possible for us to be human; they ``tell us who we are, why we are here, and what we are doing.'' We learn them as family stories and as school and religious lessons; strangers surround us with their stories on television, in movies, and in books and magazines; and we tell our own stories about ourselves. They preserve our memories, explain our present, and help us imagine our future. With tales such as Huckleberry Finn, Taylor illustrates how exposure to characters in stories helps to mold one's own character, and using Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he demonstrates how stories shape one's view of the world. They teach us that character is more important than personality, and they challenge us to be characters engaged in life, not simply passive spectators. The values of every human society are captured in its stories, says Taylor, and to be civilized is to internalize those values; thus we are defined by our stories and by the stories we choose to tell our children. The healing power of stories, he says, comes from their power to reconnect us with others, for a story implies a community of at least two, a teller and a listener, each with responsibilities to the other. An appendix includes questions about readers' own stories; in answering the questions, says Taylor, readers will find better understanding not only of the stories but of themselves. Makes a trip to the library seem more rewarding than a session with one's therapist. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0717125009
• ISBN 13: 9780717125005
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192