The Narrative Complexity of Our Past

Abstract

In the course of normal aging, memory suffers losses in effectiveness, which, for many, spark anxiety about the onset of dementia. Against the background of Daniel Schacter’s (2001) overview of “the seven sins of memory,” this paper proposes that the line between “normal” and “dementing” is less definite than we may think. Indeed, when the narrative complexity of memory—i.e., autobiographical memory—is taken into account, such sins are not merely necessary evils but outright advantages, essential to the capacity of memory to equip us with a sense of self that is capable of coping with the challenges of later life, if not vital to the development of “wisdom.” As an incipiently literary work, the text of memory is characterized by an assortment of inadequacies-cum-qualities which, like Schacter’s “sins,” enable it to carry out its all-important mission: namely, sponginess, impulsiveness, and blurriness; tangledness, backwardness, and deceptiveness; compressibleness, moodiness, and malleableness.