The Elderly, Childhood Narration and Collective Memory

Narrative” and “narration” appear to be inseparable parts of the human psychosocial life, to the extent that it can even be mentioned that human being seems to be indefinable and inconceivable without this component and its twin component, namely “time”. The present manuscript is an attempt to understand how the mechanism of narration works, with regard to the concept of collective memory and specifically the silent historical objects in the elderly. Such an effort may help to “understand” such a mechanism and, to its maximum extent possible, open the door to the subject matter. Of course, this launching can be opened directly or indirectly, and as a dilatory goal, to the subsequent studies of or empathetic therapeutic proceedings for the elderly, in the field of reminiscence therapy. The nature of this manuscript demands theoretical allusions and the conceptual composition of those allusions, and therefore an essential part of its body will be based on such a basis. To concretely configure the story of this manuscript, the narrative world of the 82- to 84-year-olds from Kermanshah, Iran have been selected as the experimental domain of study. The central object of their childhood collective memory was set on the settlement of some Polish migrants in Kermanshah during the presence of the allied, that is, when they were between seven and eight years old. Having conducted a semi-structured interview with them, there was compiled the way of imprinting the elements of that central object in their “world of perception” and the parade of the overt and covert elements of that central object in their narrative system. Besides, based on theoretical concepts, an attempt has been made to provide a concrete discussion.