I hear the young people in my family talking about reddit, so you had me worried for a second. But the kind of stuff you repeated here sounds like my family, so that was a relief.

I'm always moved by the way young men rally around each other when one of them is troubled (they remind me of mother hens, minding their young). I'm also impressed and aware of the way women listen, and stay out of these conversations. Of course, I've seen some really awful male behaviour reinforced the same way. But I've also seen people use that storytelling technique to start conversations that lead to change in their own family dynamics.

What I really like are the "I screwed up stories" men use to teach the younger ones how to behave. These "confessional stories" give men a chance to say what they did, then explain why they regret it. Telling those stories to the whole family, including the kids, gives everyone a chance to chime in which establishes a strong model for what is, and is not, acceptable behaviour within the family circle.

Now that I think about it, personal storytelling is absent in the most troubled families and social circles I've personally encountered. Instead of storytelling, these social circles are littered with orders, demands, expectations, absolutes, and the do what I say, not what I do kind of stuff.

I can't help but wonder, if the value of personal storytelling merits some attention, even some experimentation?