Storytelling can transform minds and lives, providing new perspectives and insights.
Creativity is a key driver of resilience and personal growth.
Greek tragedies and literature can help veterans process trauma and experience post-traumatic growth.
Deep dives
The Power of Storytelling to Change Lives
Storytelling has the ability to transform minds and lives. It can provide new perspectives and insights that can shift our understanding of the world. Compelling stories can persuade, inspire, and touch the hearts and minds of listeners. Whether it's a classic literature or a personal anecdote, stories have the power to change our outlook on life and offer much-needed direction and meaning. Angus Fletcher, a professor of story science, explores the psychological effects of narratives and how storytelling can be a powerful tool for personal growth and connection.
Harnessing Creativity for Resilience and Growth
Creativity is a key driver of resilience and personal growth. It allows us to adapt to change, find new solutions to challenges, and embrace uncertainty. By nurturing creativity, we can overcome fear and take risks, knowing that failure is part of the growth process. Cultivating creativity in schools and society can help individuals develop a sense of self-efficacy and open them up to new possibilities. Embracing volatility and chaos instead of shying away from them is essential for personal and professional growth.
The Healing Power of Storytelling for Veterans
Greek tragedies and literature have been used to help veterans process trauma and experience post-traumatic growth. Theatre performances and engaging with stories provide catharsis and help individuals heal from deep emotional wounds. By sharing their stories, veterans can find solace, understanding, and connection. Literature and storytelling offer a powerful mechanism to process difficult emotions, reframe narratives, and cultivate resilience. Helping veterans tell their stories and supporting their creative expression can lead to personal growth and healing.
Embracing Uncertainty and Taking Action
Rather than focusing on making perfect decisions based on data, it is more important to embrace uncertainty and take action. The human brain is not a computer that weighs options and picks the best one. Instead, human intuition and action-taking are valuable assets. By training the brain to seek exceptional information and leverage creativity, individuals can make decisions in complex, volatile situations. Embracing failure, reframing mistakes, and engaging with improv mentality play a crucial role in personal growth and resilience.
The Power of Imagination and Radical Thinking
Imagination and radical thinking are crucial for progress and innovation. Optimization, while important, can lead to stagnation and vulnerability. The focus should shift towards envisioning completely new technologies and possibilities beyond incremental improvements. This applies to various fields, such as software development and the quest for new technology beyond computers.
The Role of Storytelling and Counterfactual Thinking in Creativity
Creativity is not only trainable but also influenced by diverse neural structures. Counterfactual thinking, also known as 'what if' thinking, is vital for creativity. Anomalies and perspective shifting are key drivers of creative thinking. Creatives excel at story thinking and narrating alternative possibilities. By leveraging the power of storytelling, individuals can change their own perspectives, behaviors, and even their own brains, leading to personal growth and transformation.
The fact that you're listening to this podcast right now tells me you likely already know the power of a compelling story. Good storytelling can persuade, inspire, and ultimately grab hold of the hearts and minds of whoever's listening or reading. And so, whether you'd call yourself a lover of classic literature, an avid reader, or neither, you can probably think of a book you've read or a story you've heard at some point that's completely changed your outlook on life or given you much-needed perspective. Telling stories, although the act may seem like second nature, is a powerful tool that we all can use to deepen the way we learn and interact with one another and ourselves and help us find more meaning and direction in our own lives. And to bring the power of storytelling to light further and break down the science and impact behind it is today's guest, Angus Fletcher, Professor of Story Science at Ohio State's Project Narrative, the world's leading academic think tank for the study of how stories work.
As a practitioner of story science or story scientist, Angus has a B.S. in neuroscience from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in literature from Yale. His fascinating research employs a mix of laboratory experiment, literary history and rhetorical theory to explore the psychological effects—cognitive, behavioral, therapeutic—of different narrative technologies. His newest research on resilience and creativity with the U.S. Army's Special Operations community has just been published in Harvard Business Review and the New York Academy of Sciences.
Today, he joins me as one of the world's leading experts on the psychological effects of narrative and literature to dive deeper into the science of stories and explore how we all could use the stories we are told and tell ourselves to better our lives and find more meaning, joy, and hope. In our chat, you'll hear us talk more about the nitty-gritty of narrative theory and his new book on the science of stories, Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature, and explore how storytelling is the free driver of change, self-efficacy, and connection that we all need in our adult lives and in childhood.
If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Liz Gilbert about creativity and storytelling and writing and lifting a fully open, honest, true and real life.
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