The Human Subject Within Plot: The Hypothesis of a Finite Set of Basic Mythological Structures, Inter-Plot Barriers, and a Plot-Based Model of Free Will

1. The Problem of a Finite Number of Plots

The idea that the diversity of narratives can be reduced to recurrent patterns has repeatedly emerged in folklore studies, literary scholarship, and structural anthropology. Different research traditions, however, have employed different classificatory criteria.

The international Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index systematizes folktale types. Its entries group narratives that share relatively stable configurations of episodes and motifs, while the scale of the catalog itself demonstrates the diversity of particular traditions [1]. Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature serves a different purpose: it classifies individual recurrent elements—characters, objects, trials, transformations, and relationships—that may occur in different stories [2].

Vladimir Propp shifted the focus from thematic similarity to the structure of action. In Morphology of the Folktale, he identified 31 functions of the dramatis personae and demonstrated that different characters may perform similar actions in a relatively stable sequence [3]. In his analysis of myth, Claude Lévi-Strauss examined not a linear succession of episodes but the relations and transformations that enable different versions of a myth to retain their structural affinity [4].

At least four objects of classification should therefore be distinguished. A motif is a recurrent narrative element. A function describes an action in terms of its place within the development of a story. A plot type comprises a stable sequence of motifs and functions. A global plot expresses the most general type of transformation undergone by an individual, a community, or a world.

Catalogs containing thousands of motifs do not disprove the possibility of a finite number of functions or more general transformations. Conversely, the identification of recurrent structures does not establish the existence of an exact list encompassing every possible story. The question of finitude becomes meaningful only after the relevant level of analysis has been defined.

2. Is It the Catalog or the Grammar of Plots That Is Finite?

The claim that plots are finite permits both a strong and a moderate interpretation. The strong version assumes the existence of a catalog in which every possible story would correspond to a single entry. Although the possibility of constructing such a catalog cannot be excluded in principle, the moderate version appears more appropriate at the present stage of research.

This version operates not with “ready-made stories” but with a set of operations and relations from which stories are constructed. Just as a finite vocabulary and a finite set of grammatical rules can generate a multiplicity of utterances, a relatively small set of plot transformations may produce a wide variety of myths, literary works, political narratives, and personal stories.

Such transformations may include emergence, separation, acquisition or theft, the violation of a prohibition, the crossing of a boundary, struggle, loss, sacrifice, return, and restoration. This list is not intended to be definitive. It merely indicates the level at which the hypothesis of finitude becomes meaningful: the relevant question concerns not the number of texts but the number of distinguishable ways in which an initial state can be transformed.

A flood myth, for example, can be represented analytically as a sequence comprising transgression, punishment, catastrophe, the preservation of a remnant, and a new beginning. The story of a culture hero often involves crossing a boundary, acquiring forbidden knowledge, transmitting it to humanity, and subsequently being punished. Such sequences neither replace the interpretation of a particular myth nor constitute an algorithm for its exhaustive description. They provide a means of comparing different narratives in terms of the transformations that occur within them [3,4].

The hypothesis of a finite plot alphabet or grammar thus accommodates the emergence of new works and cultural meanings, making it more flexible than any rigid system of cataloging.

3. Four Global Classes of Plot

At the first level of the proposed working classification, four global processes are distinguished: the birth of a world, the destruction of a world, return, and salvation. This formulation makes no claim to universality; it is employed here as an analytical instrument for constructing the model. The classification is based on four distinct vectors of transformation: emergence, destruction, the recovery of what has been lost, and the restoration of a disrupted whole.

The term world is used here in an extended sense. A world may be a universe, a state, a family, a system of relationships, a worldview, or an individual personality. This expanded definition makes it possible to compare cosmogonic and eschatological images with social and biographical narratives without asserting that they are fully equivalent.

The birth of a world denotes the emergence of a new order. In a cosmogonic narrative, this means the creation of an ordered universe; in a social narrative, the establishment of a state or community; and in a biographical narrative, the formation of a new identity.

The destruction of a world involves the collapse of an order previously perceived as stable. It may take the form of a cosmic catastrophe, the disintegration of a political system, the disappearance of a community, the breakdown of a relationship, or the collapse of an established self-definition.

Return entails the restoration of a connection with a lost place, status, memory, or tradition. The returning subject, however, is generally no longer identical to the one who departed; return therefore almost invariably involves transformation.

Salvation refers to overcoming a threat and restoring the possibility of life’s continuation. It may be individual, collective, or cosmic and may take the form of liberation, sacrifice, reconciliation, or the restoration of justice.

The boundaries between these four classes are permeable. The destruction of an old world may become a precondition for the birth of a new one, while return may serve as a means of salvation. The classes indicate the dominant direction of transformation but do not exclude the combination of several processes within a single narrative.

4. Sixteen Plot Families

Each global process can be represented by four plot families.

4.1. The Birth of a World

This class comprises four families: emergence from nonbeing or chaos; the division of primordial unity; the creation of a human being, lineage, or community; and the acquisition of culture, knowledge, or law.

Their shared dynamic can be described as the emergence of structure or of an inhabitable world. At the cosmic scale, this involves the emergence of the universe; at the social scale, the establishment of a new order; and at the individual scale, the formation of a self-definition that did not previously exist.

Division plays an ambivalent role in these narratives. It disrupts an original unity while simultaneously producing distinctions without which an ordered world would be impossible: above and below, self and other, past and future. In mythological narratives, birth is therefore frequently accompanied by the loss of primordial wholeness.

4.2. The Destruction of a World

This class comprises the violation of a prohibition and the fall; desecration and punishment; a catastrophe that destroys the existing order; and the final battle or the end of time.

In such plots, the existing order first reveals an internal vulnerability. The transgression may consist of a single act, an accumulation of injustice, or the system’s inability to adapt. It is followed by a crisis after which the former world ceases to exist in a recognizable form.

Destruction may be represented as final, but it is frequently endowed with a purificatory meaning. The end of one order then creates the possibility of another, connecting the plot of destruction with that of birth. This relationship is especially important in political narratives, in which the promise of a new beginning may be used to legitimize the destruction of the present.

4.3. Return

This class comprises departure and homecoming; descent into another realm and return from it; the recovery of a lost object, name, or memory; and the restoration of a legitimate ruler or order.

The general structure involves an initial state of belonging, the crossing of a boundary, a period spent in an alien space, a trial, and return. The ending, however, rarely entails the simple restoration of the initial state. The experience acquired changes the returning subject, while the home itself may also have changed during the subject’s absence.

Return therefore contains an inherent tension between the desire to restore the past and the impossibility of preserving it unchanged. Some stories resolve this tension by acknowledging change: to return is not to repeat one’s former life but to reestablish a relationship with what has been lost.

4.4. Salvation

This class comprises victory over a monster or chaos; exodus from captivity or dependence; redemptive sacrifice; and reconciliation and the restoration of wholeness.

The plot begins with a threat that renders the continuation of the former way of life impossible. A hero, mediator, sacrificial act, or collective action then opens a way out. The outcome need not be a return to the initial state; rather, it is the establishment of an order in which the threat has lost its former power.

Salvation differs from simple return in that it transforms not only the hero’s position but also the surrounding world. Victory over an adversary, however, is only one of its possible forms. In some narratives, salvation is achieved through exodus, the rejection of dependence, the containment of violence, or the recognition of a previously excluded part of the whole.

5. Three Scales of Instantiation and the Working Matrix

Each of the sixteen families can be instantiated on at least three scales. At the individual scale, the object of transformation is an identity, an inner world, a relationship, or a biographical project. The social scale encompasses the family, group, people, state, and culture. At the cosmic scale, the plot concerns nature, the universe, or a sacred order.

Combining the four global processes, the four families within each process, and the three scales produces the following matrix:

4 × 4 × 3 = 48

This formula does not establish that exactly 48 plots exist, nor does it preclude alternative approaches to constructing a classificatory grammar of plots. Its purpose is to create a manageable comparative framework and to make explicit the criteria by which narratives are assigned to the same or different positions.

For example, the family involving the “restoration of legitimate order” may be instantiated as the restoration of an individual’s inner integrity, the recovery of political legitimacy, or the renewal of cosmic order after a period of chaos. These stories differ in their content and consequences but share the same direction of transformation.

The matrix also accommodates complex cases. A single narrative may move successively from the destruction of a world to the birth of a new one, while the protagonist’s individual plot may diverge from the community’s collective plot. The 48 positions should therefore be understood not as isolated cells but as analytical coordinates among which combinations and transitions are possible.

6. Archetype as Function, Plot as a Dynamic Process, and Myth as a Model of the World

Having developed a general classification of plots, it is necessary to clarify how the identified plot structures relate to the stable symbolic images and roles that recur across cultures. This requires examining the relationship between plots and archetypes. In the Jungian tradition, an archetype is understood not as a fully formed character but as a form that organizes psychic and symbolic material [9]. The notion of a biologically inherited set of universal images, however, remains contested. Contemporary scholars have proposed that cultural transmission, the shared problems of human life, and recurrent mechanisms of perception should be considered alongside the specifically Jungian explanation [10,11,12].

It should be emphasized that the expression archetypal function is used in this article in a restricted analytical sense. It denotes a stable symbolic configuration that recurs across different narratives but does not necessarily presuppose the existence of an immutable image within the collective unconscious.

The same function may occur in different plots. The maternal figure may appear as a generative force, a protective home, the nurturing earth, an engulfing depth, a homeland, or a grave. The shadow may take the form of a monster, an enemy, a double, a repressed aspect of the protagonist, or the chaotic dimension of a community. Meaning is determined not by the image in itself but by the relations into which it enters.

Understood in this way, an archetypal function resembles a position within a symbolic grammar; a plot constitutes a trajectory formed through the interaction of several such positions; and a myth is a culturally specific model of the world. A salvation plot, for example, may involve a hero, a threat, a sacrifice, a guide, and an image of future wholeness. In one tradition, this structure is embodied in the story of a dragon slayer; in another, in a narrative of exodus; and in a third, in a political myth of liberation.

Although the grammatical analogy is useful, it by no means implies the “mechanical” generation of meaning. Myth exists not only as a structure but also as a historically changing practice of interpretation. Identical symbolic positions may acquire divergent moral and political meanings in different cultures.

7. The Human Being as a Participant in Plot

The problem of basic plots acquires philosophical significance once it is recognized that human beings, by becoming embedded in plots, are also able to understand themselves through them. The concept of narrative identity describes one way of connecting the changing events of a life into a relatively coherent understanding of who a person was, who they are, and who they may become [7,8,13].

A personal plot comprises selected events, the causal connections attributed to them, the distribution of roles, value judgments, and an anticipated resolution. It is not stored in memory as a completed text. Rather, it is an evolving schema that is reactivated and reconstructed, for example, whenever individuals explain their own actions [13,14].

Individuals may view themselves as heroes overcoming trials; victims of injustice; rescuers responsible for others; exiles searching for a home; guardians of order; or explorers seeking a hidden truth. These designations are not diagnoses and do not describe the personality in its entirety. They indicate which positions become available within a particular story.

Self-definition affects more than memories of the past. It directs attention and makes some actions more likely than others. A person who regards themselves as a rescuer may be especially attentive to others’ helplessness while underestimating their capacity for independent action. Someone who persistently perceives themselves as a victim of a hostile world is more likely to interpret the ambiguous behavior of others as threatening. Within the logic of the hero, an ordinary difficulty may be transformed into a trial that cannot be avoided and must instead be overcome.

Research on narrative identity and identity-based motivation demonstrates that conceptions of the self organize both the interpretation of situations and the selection of behavior [14,18]. In this limited but important sense, human beings do indeed live within plots: a story does not dictate every action, but it defines the range of actions that appear meaningful and possible.

8. Human Beings Live within Multiple Plots Simultaneously

It would be an oversimplification to assume that a person’s life is governed by a single story. Conceptions of the self consist of several interconnected but not always mutually consistent narratives. Some concern family life, while others relate to professional identity, political affiliation, friendship, or personal development. Research on multiple aspects of the self demonstrates that different social situations activate different elements of self-description [14,19].

Within family relationships, for example, a person may perceive themselves as someone who continually cares for others; in the professional sphere, as an undervalued specialist; and in interpreting their biography, as someone returning to an abandoned vocation. These positions are not immutable psychological types. They are situational roles and modes of interpreting experience.

Individual life stories may support one another, compete with one another, or come into direct conflict. Professional success may reinforce a personal plot of overcoming adversity while simultaneously conflicting with a family-based self-conception centered on the obligation to remain constantly available to loved ones. At times, one plot compensates for another: failure in one domain is counterbalanced by a story of success or moral rectitude in another.

Several domain-specific stories may be integrated by a stable meta-plot. The formula “I am constantly forced to overcome resistance from people who do not understand my purpose” may be applied equally to work, personal relationships, and political events. The circumstances and actors change, but the distribution of roles and the general logic of events remain stable.

The hypothesis of a finite plot grammar therefore does not imply that every individual occupies one of 48 predetermined cells. Rather, individuals combine multiple plot components, transfer them from one domain of life to another, and change their scale. Cultural master narratives provide shared forms, while each individual configuration emerges through ongoing biographical and social processes [15,16].

9. The Mythic Dimension of the Contemporary Worldview

Mythology is relevant to the present study because it is in myth that plot structure assumes the form of a comprehensive model of the world. Myth not only connects events into a sequence but also explains the origins of an order, assigns roles, establishes value-laden oppositions, and shapes an image of a possible future. The analysis of mythology therefore enables a transition from an abstract classification of plots to an examination of how plot structures organize individual and collective perceptions of reality, including in contemporary societies.

It is important in this regard that mythic elements remain inherent in modern thought. Their persistence cannot, however, be reduced to a lack of education or an inability to reason rationally. In this article, myth is understood not simply as a false belief but as a symbolically and narratively organized model that connects disparate events through a shared meaning.

Myth delineates the boundaries of a community, distributes responsibility, explains the origins of the existing order, identifies the source of a threat, and constructs an image of the future. It therefore performs not only cognitive but also normative, emotional, and social functions.

Jerome Bruner distinguished between paradigmatic and narrative modes of thought. The former seeks to establish general regularities, construct categories, and prove propositions. The latter organizes experience through agents, their intentions, conflicts, and the consequences of their actions [5]. These modes are not mutually exclusive. The same individual may reason rigorously within a professional domain while explaining political events, personal failures, or the behavior of other social groups in plot-based terms.

Rational argumentation likewise does not operate independently of an initial interpretive frame. If events have already been defined as a struggle between order and chaos, the subsequent analysis may be logically consistent even though the original framing of the problem remains unexamined. The plot identifies significant facts and presumed causes in advance.

Moreover, modern individuals must rely on knowledge that they are unable to verify independently. A considerable proportion of their beliefs is formed through scientific institutions, expert communities, mass media, and social environments. A worldview therefore inevitably combines information with varying degrees of verification, assumptions, and elements of narrative reconstruction.

In this respect, plot functions as a mechanism of semantic compression: a complex system of factors is transformed into a relatively intelligible story involving a limited number of actors, causes, and anticipated outcomes. Such compression facilitates orientation but may simultaneously conceal uncertainty, causal multiplicity, and alternative interpretations [17].

10. Political Myth as a Ready-Made Plot

Plot has particular force in the political domain because it provides individuals not only with an explanation of events but also with a recognizable place within a collective history. A political narrative answers several questions simultaneously: Who constitutes “our” community? What has happened to it? Who is responsible for its present condition? What actions will lead to the desired future?

One widespread template takes the form of a story about a lost order: a fall or betrayal leads to the suffering of a community; a culprit is then identified; a hero emerges; and the promise of revival follows. Another template begins with an image of a community threatened by a concealed enemy; awakening is followed by struggle and purification. These sequences do not constitute a universal classification. They merely illustrate how complex processes are reduced to stories with clearly assigned roles and moral evaluations.

Ernst Cassirer emphasized that political myth does not disappear as society becomes more rationalized and may be deliberately produced through modern means of communication [6]. Chiara Bottici proposes that political myth should be understood not as a falsehood invented on a single occasion but as an ongoing process of working on a narrative that endows political events with shared public significance [22].

A collective plot becomes especially compelling when it resonates with personal experience. Someone who considers themselves unjustly undervalued may prove receptive to a story about a people deprived of its rightful status. The experience of personal humiliation may intensify one’s response to a narrative of collective humiliation. This relationship is not automatic, however: similar biographical circumstances may permit markedly different political interpretations.

A political narrative does not merely communicate a set of opinions. It offers an identity, a set of moral coordinates, and a role that individuals can assume. Research on political identity demonstrates that once such identification has occurred, group membership begins to influence how information is selected and evaluated [23].

11. Plot as a Stable Configuration of Meaning

The stability of a plot derives from its integration of several mutually reinforcing elements: selected facts, causal explanations, social roles, value judgments, self-conceptions, group affiliation, and expectations concerning the future.

The relationship among these elements is cyclical. An interpretation of a situation generates expectations; expectations guide behavior; behavior affects the actions of others; and the resulting consequences are subsequently explained within the framework of the original story. This process can be represented schematically as follows:

interpretation → expectation → action → consequences → renewed interpretation

For example, a person who continually expects betrayal may behave suspiciously and attempt to control others. Such behavior complicates relationships and increases the likelihood that others will distance themselves. This distancing is then interpreted as confirmation of the original belief. In social psychology, such processes are examined as mechanisms of expectancy confirmation [24,25].

Plot stability is also sustained by the fact that contradictory information does not necessarily result in a revision of the overall picture. Such information may be ignored, treated as an exception, or subjected to an additional explanation that preserves the established distribution of roles. This is especially likely when the story is closely connected to self-esteem and membership in a valued group [18,23].

This does not mean that a plot is inherently impossible to change. An accumulation of inconsistencies, a critical event, the emergence of an alternative explanation, or a change in the social environment may render the previous story less convincing. The transition, however, requires more than disproving an individual proposition: it requires reorganizing the relationships among facts, roles, emotions, and actions.

12. Stable States and Inter-Plot Liminality

Plot stability can be described using the metaphor of a potential landscape employed in dynamic systems theory. Within this metaphor, a plot functions as a state to which interpretation returns following minor perturbations. New facts are more likely to be assimilated into the existing picture than to generate an entirely new one immediately [26].

This is not intended as a physical description of the psyche or as a reference to a quantity that can already be measured directly. The landscape metaphor merely expresses the idea that some configurations of meaning are sustained by habits, emotions, and social relationships, whereas others require a substantial reorganization of these elements.

A transition begins when the existing story ceases to explain events adequately. An alternative narrative, however, does not usually emerge immediately. Between the two lies an intermediate condition that the present article terms inter-plot liminality. This provisional concept draws on the broader idea of liminality and, more specifically, on research into transitional periods between established and emerging identities [21].

At this stage, individuals can no longer rely fully on their previous explanations but do not yet possess a new system of meaning. They may temporarily lose a clear understanding of their own role, the causes of events, and the possible resolution. The statement “The old story no longer works, but I do not yet have another one” captures the subjective content of this condition with considerable accuracy.

Liminality is experienced as confusion and the loss of a stable point of reference, yet it also creates space for revising identity. In this sense, instability is not only a source of anxiety but also a necessary condition for plot transformation.

13. The Structure of the Inter-Plot Barrier

The transition to a new plot affects several dimensions of experience simultaneously. The inter-plot barrier should therefore be conceptualized as a multicomponent construct. The following is a conceptual decomposition rather than a sum of independently measurable variables.

The cognitive component concerns the revision of habitual causal explanations. Individuals must take into account information that previously remained peripheral and acknowledge that events may have had more complex causes.

The emotional component arises because the existing plot sustains a particular affective order. It may preserve hope, anger, pride, resentment, or a sense of moral rectitude. Revising it may provoke regret, shame, guilt, and anxiety in the face of uncertainty.

The identity-related component concerns a change in the answer to the question “Who am I?” If individuals have long perceived themselves as fighters, rescuers, victims of injustice, or guardians of the truth, relinquishing that story may be experienced as a partial loss of self.

The moral component emerges when a new interpretation disrupts the familiar division between those who are unquestionably right and those who are guilty. The adversary ceases to embody absolute evil, while one’s own actions become open to critical evaluation.

The social component reflects the fact that collective stories sustain group belonging. Revising an accepted narrative may threaten an individual’s relationships, reputation, and standing within a community. Research on master narratives demonstrates that cultural stories not only explain experience but also establish the boundaries of socially acceptable identities [15,16].

The behavioral component concerns the need to substantiate a new story through action. Revising the role of the rescuer, for example, may require relinquishing the persistent control of others. Reconsidering the position of the injured party may entail searching for available forms of agency without denying the reality of the harm suffered.

The temporal component arises from prior investments. The longer individuals have been guided by a particular story, and the more decisions they have made on its basis, the more difficult it becomes to acknowledge the need for revision. The sunk-cost mechanism may operate here, whereby previous investments reinforce commitment to an already selected course of action [27].

Finally, a symbolic-role component can be distinguished. A habitual role provides a source of meaning: the hero acquires a mission, the rescuer a sense of being needed, and the exile a hope of return. Relinquishing such a position requires not only dismantling the old plot but also finding a new foundation for meaningfulness.

14. Plot Depth and the Difficulty of Revision

Plot-based conceptions vary in the extent to which they are embedded in identity. Some concern an isolated situation, others organize an entire domain of life, and still others connect a person’s biography with a broader worldview.

At the situational level, a person may think, “I must win this argument.” At the level of a recurrent role, a more general conviction emerges: “I am constantly required to prove that I am right.” At the level of identity, this conviction develops into a biographical story: “I must overcome the resistance of the world in order to fulfill my destiny.”

This sequence does not constitute a rigid or universal hierarchy. Plot depth is more accurately defined by the extent to which a plot is connected to self-esteem, relationships, group membership, and conceptions of the future. The more significant elements it integrates, the more extensive the reorganization its revision is likely to require [18,20].

Changes that preserve the core identity and value system may be assumed to occur more readily than changes that call them into question. A hero, for example, may abandon the goal of destroying an adversary and instead attempt to save them while continuing to perceive themselves as a hero. A considerably more radical transition involves recognizing that the situation does not require a heroic struggle at all but instead calls for an acknowledgment of loss or an internal conflict.

On this basis, the article advances the as-yet-untested hypothesis that transitions between closely related plot variants generally entail lower costs than transitions between different global classes. The difficulty of a transition is determined not only by the formal distance between plots but also by biographical experience, the availability of an alternative narrative, and the support provided by the social environment.

15. The Asymmetry of Transitions and Narrative Hysteresis

The transition from one plot to another is not necessarily symmetrical. In some cases, a single event may be sufficient to undermine an established interpretation, whereas reversing this change requires prolonged experience supported by repeated confirmation.

A single experience of betrayal may rapidly transform a story of trust into one of suspicion. Restoring trust, however, generally requires more than one favorable episode: it depends on a sequence of interactions in which the previous expectation is repeatedly disconfirmed. This asymmetry is consistent with evidence that, in many contexts, negative information exerts a stronger influence than positive information of comparable magnitude [28].

The concept of narrative hysteresis is proposed to describe this form of path dependence. Here, too, the concept is employed metaphorically. Narrative hysteresis means that an individual’s current plot depends not only on present circumstances but also on the trajectory through which that plot was reached.

Two individuals may find themselves in similar situations and possess approximately the same information while interpreting events in markedly different ways. For one, uncertainty may become part of a plot of exploration; for the other, it may confirm a story of threat. The difference is shaped by prior experience, established expectations, the social environment, and the explanations that have previously helped maintain a coherent identity.

Plot space therefore cannot be represented as a neutral catalog of equally accessible alternatives. The probability of a transition depends on an individual’s biographical trajectory, the degree to which the existing story is entrenched, and the availability of a compelling alternative.

16. Crisis as a Condition of Plot Transition

The transition to a different story often begins with a crisis—a moment at which the anticipated course of events diverges too conspicuously from what is actually occurring. Research on meaning-making indicates that events are especially difficult to process when they conflict with an individual’s general beliefs about the self, other people, and the structure of the world [29].

As long as the discrepancy remains limited, it can be incorporated into the existing story. A failure may be attributed to chance, another person’s behavior treated as an exception, and an unmet expectation interpreted as a temporary delay. As contradictions accumulate, however, the existing plot requires an increasing number of supplementary explanations and gradually loses its plausibility.

A rescuer may discover that their assistance does not increase another person’s autonomy but instead perpetuates dependence. A hero may realize that the struggle continually reproduces itself without bringing the story closer to a resolution. Upon returning, an exile may find that the former home no longer exists. A guardian of order may be confronted with the fact that the system being defended is itself a source of injustice.

A crisis does not necessarily result in the revision of a story. Possible outcomes include the formation of a new plot, a reinforced defense of the existing one, a shift toward a simpler and more rigid schema, or a temporary loss of meaningful organization. Encountering a contradiction may lead individuals not to revise the problematic belief but to affirm other convictions that restore a sense of order [30].

A crisis destabilizes the existing story but does not in itself determine the direction of subsequent change. That direction depends on the explanations available, the support provided by the social environment, and the capacity to tolerate a period of uncertainty.

Nor should it be assumed that a crisis or traumatic disruption automatically makes a person more mature. Positive changes following a crisis are possible but far from inevitable, and retrospective accounts of such changes do not always correspond to demonstrable changes in reality [31].

17. Intra-Plot and Inter-Plot Freedom

Freedom is generally associated with the ability to choose among several possible actions. The plot-based model extends this formulation by distinguishing between choosing within an accepted story and revising the story itself.

17.1. Intra-Plot Freedom

Intra-plot freedom involves choosing among different means while preserving the core interpretive frame. A hero may determine a strategy of struggle, seek allies, or choose the appropriate moment to advance or retreat. The necessity of defeating the adversary, however, remains self-evident and is not itself subjected to critical examination.

This form of freedom may be relatively extensive. Individuals can demonstrate ingenuity, assess consequences, and make complex decisions. Yet all available alternatives have already been organized by the initial distribution of roles: who counts as the hero, who is defined as the adversary, what constitutes victory, and which resolution should be pursued.

17.2. Inter-Plot Freedom

Inter-plot freedom begins with the critical examination of the frame itself. At this level, individuals ask: Is the other person really an enemy? Why do I perceive myself as the hero? Which circumstances have been excluded from my story? Could the situation be understood not as a struggle but, for example, as a conflict of interests, a loss, a mutual misunderstanding, or a need for negotiation?

This form of reflection bears some resemblance to Harry Frankfurt’s distinction between first-order desires and the capacity to evaluate those desires and determine which of them one wishes to endorse [32]. In the plot-based model, however, reflection concerns not only a particular intention but also the system of meaning within which that intention emerged.

An inter-plot transition is generally more difficult than choosing among actions because it affects the criteria by which choices themselves are made. A change of story may transform one’s own role, one’s perception of other people, the moral evaluation of the situation, and one’s conception of a desirable future.

This distinction neither resolves the metaphysical problem of free will nor demonstrates that human beings are independent of biological, social, or cultural causes. Its purpose is more limited: it differentiates the practical freedom to select means from the reflexive capacity to revise the conditions under which those means acquire significance.

18. Freedom as an Expansion of the Plot Repertoire

Freedom cannot be reduced to the continual replacement of one course of action or system of meaning with another. A person who is unable to remain within any system of meaning may be disoriented rather than free. A more accurate indicator of plot-based freedom is therefore not the frequency of transitions but the breadth of the available repertoire and the capacity to choose deliberately among its elements.

When individuals have access to only one interpretation, new events acquire a predetermined meaning. Disagreement becomes betrayal, failure becomes the result of a conspiracy, and assistance becomes confirmation of one’s own indispensability. When a broader repertoire is available, the same event may be understood as a conflict, an error, an accident, a loss, a trial, or an opportunity for change.

Psychological flexibility is associated with the capacity to respond to situational demands, change strategies that are no longer productive, and remain connected to one’s values [33]. Plot-based freedom may be regarded as one particular manifestation of such flexibility.

The number of available interpretations does not, however, guarantee either rationality or responsibility. A multiplicity of plots may result in arbitrariness, the indefinite postponement of decisions, or the selection of the most psychologically comfortable account. Plots should therefore be assessed according to several criteria: their consistency with the available evidence, internal coherence, ethical consequences, practical efficacy, and openness to revision.

The meta-position is of particular importance: it is the capacity to perceive one’s interpretation precisely as an interpretation rather than as an exhaustive representation of reality. A related phenomenon is described in psychology by the concept of decentering—the ability to observe one’s thoughts and feelings without identifying with them completely [34].

The meta-position may be expressed as follows: “I perceive what is happening through a particular story, but I recognize that this story does not exhaust reality.” Such distance does not eliminate the need for action. It merely makes visible the assumptions on which a decision is based.

19. The Creative Transformation of Plot Grammar

Awareness of the story one has adopted makes it possible not only to select a different position within an existing classification but also to change the rules of plot construction. This does not imply the production of wholly unprecedented content; rather, it involves transforming the relationships among familiar roles, conflicts, and modes of resolution.

In Margaret Boden’s theory of creativity, a comparable process is described as transformational creativity: what changes is not merely the elements of a solution but the rules of the conceptual space that determine which solutions are possible [35]. Applied to plot, this means that the story’s development ceases to follow a logic previously regarded as self-evident.

In such a story, the hero does not destroy the Shadow but recognizes it as part of their own personality. The rescuer relinquishes power over the person being rescued and supports their autonomy. The exile ceases to search for an unchanging past and creates a new home. A person who has suffered harm refuses to turn the future into a continuation of the conflict and seeks a way out of relationships that reproduce that harm. The destruction of a familiar world is understood not only as a catastrophe but also as an opportunity for transformation.

None of these resolutions, however, can be declared more mature in advance. The integration of conflict is not always preferable to resistance; abandoning a heroic position is not always justified; and reconciliation must not serve as a substitute for protection from a genuine threat. The quality of a new plot is determined not by its novelty but by the extent to which it accommodates the relevant facts, expands the capacity for action, and avoids reproducing earlier violence under a different name.

Creative freedom is therefore expressed not only through the invention of new characters or events. Its deeper form consists in changing the rules by which individuals assign roles, understand conflicts, and envisage possible resolutions.

20. Closed and Open Plots

Plots differ in their capacity to accommodate new information. The distinction between open and closed plots should not, however, be understood as a strict dichotomy but as a continuum. The same story may remain relatively open under some circumstances while becoming rigid under others.

A closed plot seeks to explain every possible event while rendering itself immune to falsification. Facts inconsistent with it are dismissed as exceptions, observer error, or further evidence of a concealed threat. Participants are assigned immutable roles, doubt is interpreted as weakness or betrayal, and present costs are justified by the promise of a future resolution.

As a result, events can receive only interpretations already authorized by the plot. This structure resembles the mechanism of cognitive closure, in which the desire to obtain a definite answer quickly is combined with a subsequent tendency to preserve the judgment already reached [36].

An open plot, by contrast, accepts that some events may have more than one explanation. It makes it possible to distinguish observation from interpretation, revise causal connections, acknowledge changes in roles, and consider alternative resolutions. Openness also involves a willingness to question one’s own moral position without abandoning the possibility of moral judgment itself.

In research on narrative identity in later life, a related form of interpretive closure is described by the concept of narrative foreclosure: individuals perceive the course of their lives as already determined and lose the capacity to recognize new possibilities in the future [37]. An open plot, by contrast, preserves the continuation of a biography as fundamentally unfinished.

Openness does not entail endless doubt. In some situations, rapid interpretive closure is necessary for action, coordination, or protection from an immediate threat. The problem arises when a provisional interpretation develops into a system that is fundamentally unresponsive to experience.

From this perspective, rationality does not require abandoning plot-based organization. Rather, it involves maintaining the distinction between an event and its interpretation, evaluating a story against independent criteria, and revising it when substantial contradictions accumulate.