Stories, narratives, actions over time reveal character, quirks, personal standards, human relational connections, social values, and even universal meanings! Stories do all this and then some, and good ones often cover many of these bases simultaneously. Good stories embody webs of experience that readers and listeners—and therapeutic partners—register on different levels and in different modes often at the same time. Good stories also shake our conventional assumptions and ways of thinking; they may shatter some adamantine shibboleths and open our minds and imaginations to new and future possibilities. These are the good stories, ones that are open to nuance and complexity and change, ones we try to create and cultivate in our analytic relationships. However, there are other stories, not such good ones, fixed and immovable stories, stuck in time and stultifying to growth and development. These are closed stories, and in this article I will explore varieties of therapeutic narratives that close down thinking and emotions, and I’ll speculate on their origins and remediation.