Narrative coherence arises from the aggregation of distress into a single focal point.
Just as stories clarify viewpoints through conflict (an argument or battle), life’s scattered anxieties coalesce into a definable center—a problem to solve or a burden to bear.
Without such consolidation, anxiety multiplies into paranoid simulations of endless doom. The unending cycle of possibility without resolution mirrors dystopia: no climax, no catharsis.
Meaning is found not in the myriad of troubles but in the moment they crystallize into focus. From there, transformation begins—not through avoidance, but through articulation.
Interestingly, when the anxieties are too great, our ability to appropriately target the center of our distress is skewed, so we often take action in unproductive ways, intensifying our problems as a sort of hyperactive death drive to reach a cathartic obliteration of self.