‘Mind-reading’, a method for understanding the broken narrative of an aphasic man

An aphasic man tells, an extremely fragmented, excited, and hard-to-comprehend “story.” The aim of this article is to mobilize ideas from conversation analysis (CA) and cognitive narratology, in particular those related to “mind reading,” in making sense of the problematic story and the interactional process in which the story was processed and endorsed. In cognitive narratology, it is widely assumed that people routinely interpret and misinterpret other people’s minds. This capacity to cross over the limits of the “intramental” mind and to flexibly use the resources of the “intermental” mind may become vital in situations involving severe speech and communication impediments. The experience from such cases of storytelling and comprehension may enhance the understanding of co-authoring of narratives in general.