Against Coherence. Self-Narrative and the Enjoyment of Failure

Abstract

Narrative psychology has positioned self-narration as a central means through which individuals construct identity, organize experience, and establish continuity over time. This article challenges the normative privileging of narrative coherence by examining what remains unaccounted for when the self is approached primarily through narrative. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis, I argue that self-narration cannot secure identity because the subject is structurally divided and therefore cannot be fully represented within the stories it tells about itself. Narrative coherence consequently functions not simply as an achievement but as an attempt to cover over this constitutive gap. The persistence of self-narration despite its necessary failure is examined through Lacan’s concept of surplus enjoyment: the repeated effort to construct, revise, and perfect one’s story generates a satisfaction tied precisely to the impossibility of narrative completion. Under contemporary conditions that increasingly demand continuous self-articulation, this dynamic transforms self-narration into a form of productive and libidinal labor. I describe this structure as self-betrayal and conclude by considering subjective destitution as a shift away from securing identity through narrative toward assuming the constitutive incompleteness that narrative cannot overcome.