The Power of Stories

Telling stories is the best way to teach, persuade, and even understand ourselves.

Self-Portrait in a Skewed Mirror

By Carlin Flora

You're more than the star and author of your own life story--you're also the spin master.

The Connector

By Joshua Gowin Ph.D.

Sharing a story puts people in brain-to-brain synchrony

Direct Hit

By Pamela B. Rutledge Ph.D., M.B.A.

Stories leap frog technology and go straight to the brain

The Inside Story

By Peter Guber

Success demands that we harness the power of telling a killer story.

More From This Collection

An African Like Me?

By Jaime Booth Cundy BSW, MAPP

How can hearing an alternative story change how we perceive?

Writing a compelling life story in 500 words or less

By Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.

From college applications to CEO cover letters, how to nail the personal essay

Duchess of York’s Redemption Story Is Good Theatre

By Loretta G. Breuning Ph.D.

Princess Sarah does self-help without doing personal responsibility

Fiction as stealth persuasion

By Julie Sedivy Ph.D.

How advertisers can appear nicer than they are

Can Stories Change the World?

By Victoria Maxwell

How your life can lift people.

Can a Story Inspire Divorce Reform?

By Rachel Clark

A divorce sparks draft law: Parental Divorce Reduction Act

Emotional Story-Telling after Stressful Experiences: A Way to Find Meaning

By Melanie Greenberg Ph.D.

Can writing memoirs transform the meaning of trauma?

Does the Death of Bin Laden Help the 9/11 Families to Heal?

By Melanie Greenberg Ph.D.

Bin Laden's Death Changes the Trauma Narrative of 9/11

Can The Magic of Great Literature Take You Around The World?

By Jonathan Wai Ph.D.

A conversation with James Flynn, author of The Torchlight List

Protagonists, Plotlines and the Power of Mental Illness Narratives

By

Troubled Times Spark Cruel Claims

By Gary Alan Fine Ph.D.

How can we judge the validity of the wartime atrocity tale?

What's Your Life Story?

By Bella DePaulo Ph.D.

Gripping life stories don’t need conventional events

As Believable As Fiction

By Susan K Perry Ph.D.

How to write compelling creative non-fiction

The Case of the Missing Cobra

By Pamela B. Rutledge Ph.D., M.B.A.

Making news compelling through the art of story

Out of suffering, hope

Out of suffering, hope

By Elana Premack Sandler L.C.S.W., M.P.H

Marsha Linehan’s personal dialectics

Why Can't This Just Be Funny?

By Karen Kleiman MSW, LCSW

The art of not taking yourself too seriously

Jane Mendelsohn: American Music

"Writers Do Not Give Up on People"

By Susan K Perry Ph.D.

To move the heart, construct your characters carefully.

Why Psychotherapists Write Novels and Plays

By Paula J. Caplan Ph.D.

How therapy differs from fiction and theatre

Only a Story? Not If Your Brain Has Its Way

By Susan K Perry Ph.D.

Blame your brain when stories move you to real tears.

Your life story in metaphors

By Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.

A box of chocolates or a bowl of cherries; which best fits your life?

Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man, Revisited

By Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.

Should we fear or revere old age?