Table Of ContentT H E S T O R I E D N A T U R E
OF HUMAN LIFE
The Life and
KARL E. SCHEIWBEo,r kF of Theodore R. Sarbin
R
A
N
K J. B
A
R
RETT
The Storied Nature of Human Life
Karl E. Scheibe • Frank J. Barrett
The Storied Nature
of Human Life
The Life and Work
of Theodore R. Sarbin
Karl E. Scheibe Frank J. Barrett
Wesleyan University Naval Postgraduate School
Middletown, Connecticut, USA Monterey, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-48789-2 ISBN 978-3-319-48790-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-48790-8
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Preface
The title of this book contains an
implicit claim. “The storied nature of
human life” implies that it is useful
and enlightening to look at human
life from a narrative point of view—as
if life were bound up with story, with
history, with the unfolding of mean-
ingful events, most of them in com-
pany with others—along the pathways
of the world. To assert that this point
of view is natural is, of course, quite
arbitrary. The psychologist has, over
the 150 years of the discipline, been rather more partial to biology than
to story as the linkage of psychology to nature. Nothing is wrong with
that claim, even though it also is arbitrary. We are all a nimals—to be sure.
But we are animals who have a an inveterate c ompulsion to tell and live
storied lives—enriching mere feeding to gastronomy, mere breeding to
romance, and mere experience to esthetics. We are, at least on occasion,
prepared to lay down our mere lives for great causes. While this is a para-
dox for biology, it is perfectly intelligible if the story of life is one’s focus.
It is helpful to think of the choice of a point of view in psychology as
analogous to the selection of a particular objective from among those
v
vi Preface
available on a turret of objectives on a modern microscope. Microscope
objectives differ in the degree of magnification they supply, and perhaps
also in their filtration properties and other special features. One objective
is not ideal for all targets. Similarly, one might examine human life from
the point of view of historical narrative, or of biological evolution, or of
one or another religious system, or from some mythic structure. That we
have chosen “story” as our natural objective is not to deny that other
points of view do not have value. Rather, our aim in this book is to
extend the claim we have taken from Ted Sarbin, as our mentor, that
psychology would do well to adopt contextualism as our worldview and
to regard the historical event as our root metaphor.1
The dominant worldview within psychology for most of the last
century has been mechanism, not contextualism. The root metaphor has
been the machine, not the historical event. It is still the case that mecha-
nism and the model of the machine are dominant in contemporary
psychology. To be sure, pragmatists of the sort represented by William
James or George Herbert Mead could now be classified as contextualists—
but the mechanist lens has been and remains the most frequent choice
informing the vision of psychologists. Surely Sarbin is not alone in his
choice of the contextualist perspective. Bruner (1990) has come to favor
a cultural psychology aimed at developing understandings of the working
of human mind by embracing “acts of meaning,” which must relax the
strictures of positivist reductionism. And Gergen’s (1982) influential crit-
icism of positivist social psychology calls as well for the admission of
human history and contemporary culture as essential to the advancement
of psychological understandings. The voices of Bruner and Gergen are
supported by legions—but even so at this time are the lesser force than
those psychologists of a mechanistic persuasion.
This book begins with a chapter that is a retelling of the story of the life
of Ted Sarbin. The next chapter is a review of his work and writings as a
psychologist, concentrating on his writings since his retirement as an
active faculty member in 1976. Those of us who were his students at the
time of his retirement thought to publish a collection of his contributions
to psychology. The social context of conduct (Allen & Scheibe, 1984) was a
result of that initiative. But Sarbin’s productivity showed no signs of abat-
ing with his retirement from academia. When he died in 2005, more than
Prefac e vii
250 items were listed on his vita—only 137 of which predated 1976.
Once again, those of us who were his students thought that the world
might benefit from having some of the fruits of Sarbin’s later scholarly life
more readily available. This book is the product of that supposition.
We have chosen ten articles from the last three decades of Sarbin’s
work as a psychologist for inclusion in this volume. Sarbin’s positions on
major issues in the theory and practice of psychology are consistent
through his 70 years in the field. But his later writings demonstrate a clar-
ity and mature power that warrant our attention. He was always disposed
to challenge conventional thought and methods. He was always keen on
developing a psychology that would be of some benefit in redressing
some of the obvious wrongs of human existence—of inequality, of suffer-
ing, of prejudice and exclusion. His later work, we claim, has the advan-
tages of a maturity of vision and a carefully honed style. Also, his turn to
narrative as the most promising way to develop a new and fruitful psy-
chology provided thematic unity for his later work. His pathbreaking
collection of works on Narrative psychology was published in 1984. From
that time on, narrative was his passionate first choice as a handmaiden for
psychological inquiry.
Our own contacts with Ted Sarbin and his work have been continuous
since their beginnings—in 1959 for Karl Scheibe, and in 2000 for Frank
Barrett. Correspondence was frequent, meetings were many—and with
the advent of e-mail, the communication was copious. It was through
Ted that we came to know each other—for he was a mentor for us both.
It is said that a father is ill-suited to become a mentor—perhaps because
the role of father is not chosen but rather obligatory. Ted Sarbin was in
some ways like a father to us both—for his constant caring, for his nur-
turing, for his generosity. But he was a mentor for us and for many others
not out of a sense of obligation, but because he genuinely cared to share
the benefits of his learning and understanding with willing others. As the
biographical chapter will show, Ted grew up in a loving family, even if
their circumstances were not rich. The care that Ted received somehow
translated into his capacity to care for others. He was a gentle, graceful,
and loving man—even as his posture within psychology was defiant and
nonconforming.
viii Preface
We have had the privilege of sharing in the later parts of the story of
Ted Sarbin’s life. We now have the pleasure of presenting a harvest of his
later contributions to psychology as The storied nature of human life.
Acknowledgments
Ted Sarbin was a collaborative worker in psychology—not a solitary
scholar. From the beginning of his publishing career to the end, much
of his work was co-authored. In putting together this book, we have
benefitted from collaboration as well. Ken Gergen first encouraged us to
set about this task. He has been steadfast in his support from beginning
to end. Others who have been directly involved in this project include
Theodore Sarbin, Jr., Ron Allen, James Allen, Vincent Hevern, Ralph
Carney, Caroline Carney, Karin Sobeck, Ki-Taek Chun, Miriam Cope,
Cara McNeff, Francesca Livermore, and Wendy Scheibe. Many others
have been indirectly involved—all of those Role Theorists of the Year,
members of the Tuesday Morning Group, and the scores of Ted’s
co-a uthors over the course of his career.
Copyright Acknowledgments
The authors and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint
from the following materials. We particularly wish to thank the Office of
Academic Affairs at Wesleyan University for their generous support in
obtaining this set of copyright permissions.
ix
x Acknowledgments
Barrett, F. J., & Sarbin, T. R. (2008). Honor as a moral category. Theory
and Psychology, 18, 5–25. Reproduced by permission of Theory and
Psychology. Reproduced by permission of SAGE, publishers of Theory
and Psychology.
Sarbin, T. R. (1986). The narrative as the root metaphor for contextual-
ism. In T. R. Sarbin (Ed.), Narrative psychology. The storied nature of
human conduct. New York: Praeger. Republished with permission of
ABC-CLIO Inc. Permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance
Center, Inc.
Sarbin, T. R. (1986). The narrative turn in social psychology. In
B. Midgley & E. K. Morris (Eds.), Modern perspectives on J.R. Kantor
and interbehaviorism. Reno, NV: Context Press. Republished with
permission of New Harbinger Publications. Permission conveyed
through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
Sarbin, T. R. (1989). Emotions as narrative emplotments. In M. J. Packer
& R. M. Addison (Eds.), Entering the circle: Hermeneutic investigation
in psychology. Albany: SUNY Press. Republished By permission of
SUNY Press.
Sarbin, T. R. (1990). Hypnosis: A fifty-year perspective. Contemporary
Hypnosis, 8, 1–20. Reproduced by permission of Crown House Pub-
lishers, UK.
Sarbin, T. R. (1996). The deconstruction of stereotypes: Homosexuals
and military policy. In G. J. Herek, R. Jobe, & R. Carney (Eds.), Out
in force; Sexual orientation and the military (Chapter 9). Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. Republished by permission of University
of Chicago Press.
Sarbin, T. R. (1998). Believed-in imaginings: A narrative approach. In
J. de Rivera & T. R. Sarbin (Eds.), Believed in imaginings: The narra-
tive construction of reality. Washington: American Psychological Asso-
ciation Press. Republished by permission of American Psychological
Association.
Sarbin, T. R. (2003). The dramaturgical approach to social psychology:
The influence of Erving Goffman. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The anat-
omy of impact: What makes great works of psychology great? Washington:
American Psychological Association. Republished by permission of
American Psychological Association.
