The romance with personal meaning in gerontology: cultural aspects of life themes

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.