Podcast TCCR #007 - Narratives as cognitive structures: Contributions from psychology and narrative theory

This episode delves into a key dimension of the "Cognosystemic Theory of Human Psychosocial Relational Construction" (TCCR): the connection between mind and narrative. Here, you’ll understand why narratives are not merely cultural expressions, but fundamental cognitive structures for organizing experience, constructing identity, interpreting the world, and making sense of what we live.

Narratives as a Form of Thought

The TCCR posits that the human mind thinks narratively. Our experiences are not encoded as lists or logical matrices, but as stories with a beginning, development, and meaning. People don’t just tell stories—they think, remember, feel, and make decisions through them. Narrative is the invisible architecture of human thought.

Contributions from Narrative Psychology

Inspired by authors such as Jerome Bruner, the TCCR builds on the idea that there are two modes of thought: the logical-paradigmatic and the narrative. The latter is essential for understanding the human experience. According to this perspective, we don’t just live stories—we organize our beliefs, emotions, and behaviors through narrative structures that help us navigate the complexity of the world.

Narrative Schemas as Interpretive Frameworks

Narratives function as culturally shared cognitive schemas. They define what we interpret as relevant, how we feel about it, and what meaning we assign to it. These are not merely individual stories, but collective plots that shape the structure of psychosocial life. These schemas determine how we perceive, react to, and act upon our lived experiences.

Narrative, Identity, and the Sense of Self

This episode presents a central idea: identity is a narrative. The “self” is not a fixed entity, but a story constructed in dialogue with others. The TCCR sees the subject as a narrative node—a convergence point of personal, social, and cultural stories that shape their being. How a person narrates their life defines their experience and their potential for transformation.

Narrative, Memory, and Emotion

Narratives organize memories and emotions into meaningful symbolic sequences. Through them, it becomes possible to reframe pain, integrate traumatic experiences, or reconstruct life’s meaning. The TCCR holds that narrative intervention is both cognitive and emotional—opening paths to understanding, agency, and healing in psychosocial practice.

Difference from Other Forms of Cognitive Encoding

Unlike logical or analytical schemas, narrative allows us to integrate complexity: ambiguity, contradiction, context, and intentionality. This makes it especially powerful for understanding the psychosocial, where multiple layers of meaning interact simultaneously. Narrative captures the richness and depth of human experience in all its complexity.

Why Does This Matter for Social Work?

This episode invites us to see people not as carriers of symptoms or problems, but as narrative subjects in ongoing construction. From this perspective, Social Work can:

- Identify oppressive or fragmented stories.

- Support processes of narrative reconstruction.

- Promote alternative stories that open new ways of being and relating in the world.

The episode concludes with an essential affirmation for the TCCR: narratives are the architecture of human thought. Understanding them as complex cognitive structures allows Social Work to access deeper processes of meaning, identity, and relational transformation.

Listen and discover how a cognitive-narrative lens can radically transform the way you understand and intervene in the psychosocial field.

Click here to purchase the book on Amazon Books.