Research on the Narrative Structure of Self-Healing Based on Mythical Principles

Judging whether one’s life has been successful is entirely based on how one perceives oneself, known as ‘self-awareness.’ This self-awareness is prominently displayed in Oral Life Narratives, and interestingly, the self-awareness that appears there often shows very extreme aspects. In some cases, a very positive self-awareness runs throughout the entire narrative, while in other cases, it is filled solely with negative self-awareness, exhibiting extreme storytelling tendencies. This study aims to identify the structural differences in such polarized oral life narratives and to find the structuring method of the self-narrative that creates positive self-awareness. As a result, it was confirmed that oral life narratives with a clear mythological ‘suffering-overcoming’ structure, where ‘my role’ as the subject of overcoming is prominently displayed, tend to narrate life in a positive direction. Everyone experiences their own pain and sorrow in life. Therefore, how one accepts such experiences becomes the watershed between positively or negatively perceiving one’s life. Thus, the narrative structure of self-healing based on the mythological narrative principle of ‘sufferingovercoming’ can function as a cognitive schema that allows us to integrate upcoming life experiences positively, and as a narrative action principle that can successfully cope with the inevitable realities of life.