Why personal crises are not always just personal
What performance pressure, societal expectations, individualisation, power, and psychological strain have to do with narratives.
Why personal crises are not always just personal
Personal crises often feel very private. You lie awake at night, ruminate, carry on functioning, and wonder: What's wrong with me?
This question is understandable. But it is sometimes too small.
Because personal crises don't just arise within an individual. They also arise where individual experiences meet societal expectations: pressure to perform, conformity, role models, economic uncertainty, cultural norms, and the constant demand to work on oneself.
When problems are personalised
Many people initially interpret exhaustion, self-doubt, or inner turmoil as a personal failing.
I'm not resilient enough.
I'm too sensitive.
I need to function better.
I should be more grateful.
I just need to get better organised.
Sentences like these sound familiar. They fit well into a society that likes to individualise problems: If something doesn't work, the individual human should become more resilient, more efficient, more serene or more optimised.
Naturally, there are personal factors. Naturally, therapy, coaching, or counselling can help. But not every crisis can be meaningfully understood by looking only at the individual person.
Sometimes it's not the person who is too weak. Sometimes it's the story they are meant to live in that is too restrictive.
Societal narratives work too.
Narratives are powerful stories about what is considered normal, successful, or right. They shape how people think about themselves.
A strong societal narrative is: a successful life is planned, productive, and as free from setbacks as possible. Those who fail must improve themselves. Those who are exhausted must learn to set boundaries. Those who don't fit in must become more flexible.
That sounds reasonable. But it can also obscure the fact that many burdens have structural causes: precarious work, care work, discrimination, migration experiences, classism, racism, gender roles, or constant availability.
When such conditions remain invisible, a social problem quickly becomes a personal deficit.
Power is also evident in narratives
Power doesn't just operate through laws, money, or institutions. It also operates through narratives: Who is considered normal? Who has to explain themselves? Who is heard? Who is described as difficult, compliant, successful, or resilient?
Narratives are instrumental in deciding which experiences are acknowledged and which are not.
This is why it can be a relief not to immediately view a crisis as a personal failure, but to ask:
Which story works here?
Who co-wrote this story?
What expectations am I adopting?
And what other interpretations are possible?
Personal crises remain personally noticeable. But they are not always solely explainable in personal terms. This is precisely where an important scope begins: not in glossing over, but in understanding more precisely.