ABSTRACT
The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard pointed out that people interpret life experiences and events retrospectively in a process of sensemaking. They compare current experiences and events with what they remember from the past and thus integrate them into their life story. While remembering and interpreting, people judge whether the core of their self has changed over time or has remained unaffected. Research on personal identity specifies the attempt to understand backwards in a process of interpretation and reinterpretation as biographical continuity (Erikson 1959; Hausser 1983). In the most fundamental sense, biographical continuity maps one’s understanding of how and who one is coming to be, and passing away from having been. In this process of sensemaking, elapsed time is crucial in order to develop an understanding of and integrate experiences into a network of explanations coherently linking episodes and years. As time proceeds, events are retrospectively reinterpreted and some lose their importance. Central to this process is a question that we ask respondents: Is there a golden thread in your life?
