May 18, 2023, 8 a.m. UTC // May 18, 2023, 8 a.m. in UTC
According to narrative views of the self, we construct our identity by developing self-narratives. Many also hold that our identity as an embodied subject is shaped through bodily interactions with the world. However, existing theories of the self leave it largely unclear how self-narratives and the body work together in this process. I present a novel account on this issue by drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s conception of the body and habits. For him, the body has an inherent tendency to cultivate an organization of habits through its history of engagement with the world. Furthermore, these organizations of habits shape the subject’s general relationship with the world. I argue that the narrative self is grounded in this habituality of the body in two respects. First, narrative self-conceptions are typically informed by reflections upon pre-existing habitual patterns of interactions. Second, self-narrating is typically itself an embodied and embedded practice involving pre-existing narrative habits. I conclude by sketching some implications of this account of the relationship between embodiment and the narrative self for future research on the self.
