Autobiographical Reasoning and Severity of Personality Dysfunction

Abstract

Narrative identity is defined as a personal life story that integrates an understanding of the past and an envisioned future to provide life with a sense of meaning, unity and purpose. The key process through the construction of narrative identity is autobiographical reasoning, which can be understood from the perspective of three indicators: exploratory narrative processing, meaning-making, and self-event connections. The relationship between narrative identity and personality disorders has been examined extensively over the last decade. According to the latest literature, autobiographical reasoning could be a crucial narrative indicator of the severity of personality dysfunction. However, there was no research to verify this hypothesis. The main goal of the presented research was to examine relationships between autobiographical reasoning and the severity of personality dysfunction. The analysis includes data collected from 11 volunteers using a questionnaire (Self and Interpersonal Functioning Scale [SIFS]) and Life Story Interview (Critical Events). Each statement was treated separately (N = 88) in order to enable statistical analysis. The preliminary results show that the indicators of autobiographical reasoning are negatively correlated with some of the aspects of the severity of personality dysfunction. The results support the reasonability of the approach followed in this research, and contribute to academic discussion about relationships between narrative identity and personality disorders.