Making sense of the past trauma in narratives of the self: moral space of self-interpretation

Abstract

This paper applies modern interdisciplinary methodologies to sociological data in order to enhance our understanding of the silences and distortions inherent in post-traumatic narratives of the self, and the mechanisms behind them, by placing these narratives in historical, as well as psychological, perspective. In particular, we use a narrative psycholo-gy approach. In addition, we use gender analysis, as the study is based on a corpus of oral data collected through a series of interviews with divorced men. Our research demonstrates that post-traumatic self-narratives are shaped not only by the attempts of the respondents to conceal their moral failures by creating an alternative version of self in personal terms, but also by their desire to adhere to the norms and standards including gender stereotypes of their historical time and social strata.