Luborsky M R
Polisher Researcher Institute, Philadelphia Geriatric Center, PA 19141.
Gerontologist. 1993 Aug;33(4):445-52. doi: 10.1093/geront/33.4.445.
Life narratives have wide appeal because they promote the modern ideal of freeing people to reflect on their life and to share personal meanings and experience in public. Constructing a life story may aid adult development and well-being. This article explores how to enhance these benefits, but criticizes the idealization of stories and their benefits. Using life stories from 16 randomly selected clinically depressed and nondepressed elderly persons, this article examines the narrative structures and how these relate to mood and to ideal images for the self. Findings show that some normative styles for self-representation (i.e., personal themes) serve to express distress instead of positive well-being. The discussion points to cultural and historical forces shaping our ideas about themes in stories. Life stories do privilege personal meanings, but the settings and form constrain their value as research data and their effectiveness as vehicles for enhancing well-being.
人生叙事具有广泛的吸引力，因为它们推动了现代理想，即让人们能够自由地反思自己的生活，并在公共场合分享个人意义和经历。构建一个人生故事可能有助于成年人的成长和幸福。本文探讨了如何增强这些益处，但批评了故事及其益处的理想化。本文使用从16名随机挑选的临床抑郁症患者和非抑郁症老年人那里收集的人生故事，研究了叙事结构以及这些结构与情绪和自我理想形象之间的关系。研究结果表明，一些自我呈现的规范方式（即个人主题）用于表达痛苦而非积极的幸福。讨论指出了塑造我们对故事主题看法的文化和历史力量。人生故事确实赋予个人意义特权，但背景和形式限制了它们作为研究数据的价值以及作为增进幸福手段的有效性。
