Myth and Reality: The Older Person's Relationship to His Past

Abstract

To study relationship to the past, reminiscence data were gathered from thirty-five persons, sixty-five to 103 years old, and twenty-five middle-aged persons, forty-four to fifty-five years old. It was hypothesized that the elderly would not only be more involved in their past but also mythicize their past as reflected in ratings of dramatization, consistency and certainty. Contrasts between the two samples revealed significantly greater involvement and dramatization but no differences in consistency, certainty or reconciliation. The mythicizing of significant figures, evidenced in reminiscence among the elderly, can be interpreted as an adaptational response that is different from making sense out of one's life. Later in life the past becomes unique, and in the myth becoming the reality, one's life becomes justified.