Shankar Vedantam

But we just don't have access to the objective history of our lives.

We're always reconstructing the past, interpreting the present, imagining the future.

So I often refer to my field as a science of subjectivity.

using the tools of science to understand the ways in which people turn their experiences into meaning.

When we come back, Jonathan answers more of your questions about the science of storytelling.

You're listening to Hidden Brain.

This is Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedant.

In 2006, the writer and journalist Joan Didion published a collection of non-fiction pieces titled, We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live.

At Olin College, psychologist Jonathan Adler couldn't agree more with the premise of that title, but he might edit the title to say, We Tell Ourselves Stories to Shape How We Live.

He joins us today for our latest installment of Your Questions Answered.

Jonathan, we heard from lots of listeners who are in the process of rewriting their personal narratives.

Maybe they're in a transition point in their lives or just reflecting on events that happened to them in the past, and they're trying to figure out, how do I reframe my story in a useful way?

Here's listener Denise.

So I thought I would share my story, which is about my experience of living with tinnitus, which started in my 20s, was a visitor now and then through the years.

But as I got older, it was a little bit more in volume and was with me constantly.

I did go to a doctor who pretty much said there isn't much they can do and felt discouraged.

And yeah, there was some anxiety about it until I had a change of story.

And my story was that if this is going to be with me all the time, it might as well be my friend.

And it could be even more than that.