Abstract
Within philosophy and psychology the view is today being advanced that the well-being of a person is essentially related to the person's capacity to construct and live out meaningful life narratives. Most notably, thinkers such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor represent this narrative view of the person within philosophy. Through a reading of Søren Kierkegaard's notion of the person this paper argues that the narrative view is ultimately untenable. The well-being of the person, it is argued, is not a matter of establishing meaningful narratives, but a matter of wholeheartedly willing to be oneself. In discussing the notion of willing wholeheartedly the paper links Kierkegaard to Harry G. Frankfurt's philosophy of personhood.
© Walter de Gruyter 2010
