In this paper I distinguish between two claims. 1) That subjects or selves are constituted by narratives. 2) That narratives play an essential and irreducible role in capturing subjectivity. I will argue that whilst the reduction of selves to narratives - in claim 1 - fails, claim 2 helps highlight the essential role of normativity in characterising subjects' mental lives. But the irreducibility of normativity places principled limits on the range of phenomena on which psychiatry can aim to shed light.