The focus of this book is on the role of narrative analysis in the social sciences and in increasing our understanding of human lives and experiences. Contributors address such questions as: Should in-depth interviews become occasions in which to ask for life stories so as to enhance a study of social phenomena? Can a richer approach to psychological understanding be reached by studying how experience, conscious and unconscious, is organized, interpreted and reshaped throughout the life cycle? How can biographical work be used to shed light on the social construction of individual lives?
In addition, the book covers the use of narrative analysis in career biography, in examining turning points in people's lives, in the effe

Introduction - Ruthellen Josselson and Amia Lieblich
Taking Narrative Seriously - Susan E Chase
Consequences for Methods and Theory in Interview Studies
Imagining the Real - Ruthellen Josselson
Empathy, Narrative and the Architectonics of the Self
Biographical Work and New Ethnography - Jaber F Gubrium and James A Holstein
Life History and Academic Work - Steven Weiland
The Career of Professor G
Developmental Patterns of Mathematically Gifted Individuals as Viewed through Their Narratives - Ada Zohar
The Quest for Connectedness - Hadas Wiseman
Loneliness as Process in Narratives of Lonely University Students
It¿s the Telling that Makes the Difference - Adital Tirosh-Ben-Ari
Life Histories as Social Texts of Personal Experience in Sociolinguistic Studies - Sarah Mkhonza
A Look at the Lives of Domestic Workers in Swaziland
Extending Boundaries - Ardra L Cole and J Gary Knowles
Narrative on Exchange