Reconstructing Personal Stories in Virtual Reality sas a Mechanism to Recover the Self

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Digital Humanities

Background:

• The self is constructed through self-narratives, which are explanatory stories of life events.
• Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive experiences that can alter perceptions of personal history.
• Reconstructing the self is crucial for recovery, particularly after traumatic events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of virtual reality in creating self-narratives.
• To explore VR as a tool for self-reconstruction and trauma recovery.
• To examine the philosophical underpinnings of self-narrative within immersive environments.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of virtual reality's effects on self-observation and meaning-making.
• Proposal of immersive scenarios for personal story reconstruction.
• Exploration of ethical considerations and comparison with existing trauma treatment research.

Main Results:

• Virtual reality facilitates deeper self-observation, enabling individuals to reframe adverse events.
• Immersive scenarios allow for the gradual retelling and reconstruction of self-narratives.
• VR enhances the perception of narrative authorship, aiding self-recovery and mental health.

Conclusions:

• Virtual reality can be a powerful tool for therapeutic self-reconstruction by enabling users to author new life narratives.
• The immersive nature of VR supports a process of deeper self-understanding and meaning-making.
• Developing VR-based self-narrative reconstruction holds significant potential for improving mental health and self-actualization.