Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology and Education, University of Neuchâtel, Espace Tilo-Frey 1, Neuchâtel, 2000, Switzerland.
London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London, UK.
Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2024 Jun;58(2):563-588. doi: 10.1007/s12124-023-09765-0. Epub 2023 Apr 4.
Diaries have been generally understood as "windows" on sense-making processes when studying life ruptures. In this article, we draw on Michel Foucault's conceptualization of self-writing as a "technology of the self" and on sociocultural psychology to propose that diaries are not "windows" but technologies that aid in the sense-making. Concretely, we analyzed three non-exhaustive and non-exclusive uses of diary writing in times of vulnerability: (1) imagination of the future and preparation to encounter difficulties; (2) distancing from one's own experience; and (3) creating personal commitments. Our longitudinal data comprised three public online diaries written over more than twenty years, belonging to three anonymous individuals selected from a database of more than 400 diaries. We analyzed these three diaries by iterating between qualitative and quantitative analysis. We conclude that: (1) beyond their expressive dimension, diaries are technologies that support the sense-making process, but not without difficulties; (2) diaries form a self-generated space for dialogue with oneself in which the diarist also becomes aware of the social nature of her life story; (3) diaries are not only technologies for the Socratic "know thyself" but also technologies to work on oneself, especially in terms of the personal perspective on the past or the future; and (4) the practice of diary writing goes beyond sense-making towards personal development and the desire to transform one's life trajectory.
日记通常被理解为研究生活破裂时的意义建构过程的“窗口”。在本文中，我们借鉴米歇尔·福柯（Michel Foucault）将自我书写概念化为“自我技术”的概念，并借鉴社会文化心理学，提出日记不是“窗口”，而是帮助意义建构的技术。具体来说，我们分析了在脆弱时期日记写作的三种非穷尽性和非排他性用途：（1）对未来的想象和对困难的准备；（2）与自己的经历保持距离；（3）创造个人承诺。我们的纵向数据包括三个人公开的在线日记，历时二十多年，选自一个拥有超过 400 篇日记的数据库中的三个人。我们通过定性和定量分析的迭代来分析这三个日记。我们得出以下结论：（1）除了表达层面之外，日记还是支持意义建构过程的技术，但并非没有困难；（2）日记为与自己进行对话创造了一个自我生成的空间，在这个空间中，写日记的人也意识到了自己生活故事的社会性质；（3）日记不仅是苏格拉底式的“认识你自己”的技术，也是自我完善的技术，特别是在个人对过去或未来的看法方面；（4）写日记的实践不仅是意义建构，还有助于个人发展和改变生活轨迹的愿望。
