Why the narrative self?--Contemporary interest in narrative theory--Is the self real or illusory?--Dennett's brand of naturalism--The heterophenomenological method (HM)--Consciousness and the self--The naturalist narrative self--Puzzle cases--The HM and the narrative self--The limitations of Dennett's account--The limits of language--Epistemological fragility--Ontological fragility--Naturalism and phenomenology--Confronting naturalism--Phenomenology and hermeneutics--The detour of interpretation--Reflexivity--The problem of personal identity--The number of selves, identity relations and truth--The capable self and its narrative identity--Narrative identity and aristotelian muthos--Narrative recounting of human lives--LPSE-identity and literary puzzle cases--Certainty, knowledge and attestation--Narrative attestation--Fact and fiction--Narrative attestation--The limitations of Ricoeur's account--Selective appeals to literary and psychoanalytic discourses--Focus on the self-examining self--The ontological status of the narrative self--The epistemological status of the narrative self--The practical self--Why the narrative self?