ABSTRACT
Memoir has been described as the "invention of truth" (Zinsser, 1987). Gordon Allport, who worked extensively with "personal documents" as data for psychology, also recognized the subjectivity of his material but, in an early anticipation of today's relativity, saw the personal account as a legitimate construction of a reality that could also be scrutinized in other ways and by other investigators. A memoir, being retrospective, allows the memoirist to superimpose a pattern not apparent in the welter of events as they occurred. Biographers may infer different patterns. The construction achieved by subjects themselves can take into account highly personal values and goals that may not readily appear to others. And the values and goals inferred by objective observers may be miles apart from those reported by the subjects. Who has the truth? Both are inventions.
