This course examines the process of life review and its role in human aging. The phenomena of memory, imagination, and identity in later age will be examined. Implications of Kierkegaard’s statement, “we live life forward but understand it backward,” will be explored. Participants will develop practical methods of facilitating life review for themselves and older students/clients.

GOALS OF THE COURSE

1. Participants will become familiar with the emerging literature on aging and the life review as it is being reported in educational, social, and humanistic gerontology.

2. Institute members will consider the nuances between the commonly “collapsed” categories of reminiscence, life review, life history, and oral history.  They will also consider the distinctions between memoir and autobiography.

3. Participants will learn some of the basic components of human memory and understand normal changes in memory associated with aging.

4. Members will explore metaphors of the human life course and will seek applications of these metaphors to older students/clients as well as to their own lives.

5. Members will explore the relationship between developmental psychology and life review.

6. Participants will become familiar with current research findings on life review being reported in the gerontology literature.

7. Members will experience a variety of artistic expressions of aging and life review (i.e., film, poetry, music)

8. Participants will have the experience of writing and reflecting upon their own memoirs.

9. Members of the institute will share vignettes of their own life histories with each other.

10. Participants will develop a personal theory of aging and life review and will be encouraged to apply this theory to their own professional practice.

1. What is life review?  What role does it have in the aging process?

2. Who are the major contributors to the theories of life review?  What are their contributions?

3. Why bother? What is the value of life review for my older clients, family members, or friends? For myself?

4. What role might life review have in my professional practice (be it adult education, nursing, social work, counseling, religious ministry . .

5. What is the relationship between life review and death?

6. How might I facilitate my own or others’ life reviews?

7. What is it like to write a memoir? What value does this act have sui generis?  What value is there in communicating one’s memoir with other people?

8. What role does life review have in helping us to confront some of the age-old questions of the human condition, i.e., What is life’s meaning and purpose?  Why was I born?  Why must I die?  Is there value in human suffering?  If so, what is it?  Why do we grow old?  How might we do so with “glad grace?”  Is our personal destiny as human beings finite or infinite; mortal or immortal?

Hull, Jonathan (2000).  Losing Julia.  New York:  Bantam/Dell.

Scott-Maxwell, Florida (1968).  The Measure of My Days.  New York: Penguin Books.

Hendricks, J. (Ed.). (1995).  The Meaning of Reminiscence and Life Review. Baywood Press.

RECOMMENDED READING

Atkinson, R. (1998). The Life Story Interview.  Westport, CT.: Praeger.

Kenyon, G. and Randall, W. (1997).  Restorying Our Lives.  Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications.

Kaminsky, M. (Ed.). (1984).  The Uses of Reminiscence: New Ways of Working with Older Adults.  New York: Hayworth.

Randall, William L. (1995).  The Stories We Are: An Essay in Self-creation. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.

Atkinson, R. (1995) . The Gift of Stories. Westport, CT.: Bergin and Garvey.

Birren, J., Kenyon, G., Ruth, J., Schroots, J. and Svensoson, T. (Eds.) (1996). Aging and Biography:  Explorations in Adult Development.  New York: Springer.

Bernat, J. (Ed.). (1994).  Reminiscence Reviewed: Perspectives, Evaluations, Achievements.
Buckingham, England: Open University Press

Zinsser, William (Ed.)  (1987).  Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Myerhoff, Barbara (1978).  Number Our Days.  New York: Simon and Schuster.

Neisser, Ulrich (Ed.).  (1982).  Memory Observed.  New York: W.H. Freeman and Co.

Thomas, Frank (1984).  How To Write the Story of Your Life.  Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books.

Erikson, Erik, Erikson, Joan, and Kivnick, Helen (1986).  Vital Involvement in Old Age.  New York: W.W. Norton.

Blythe, Ronald (1979).  The View in Winter: Reflections On Old Age.  New York: Penguin Books.

Cowley, Malcolm (1980).  The View From Eighty.  New York: Penguin Books.

Butler, Robert and Lewis, Myrna (1982).  Mental Health: Positive Psychosocial Approaches.  3rd Edition).  St. Louis: C.V. Mosby.

Breytspraak, Linda (1984).  The Development of Self in Later Life.  Boston: Little Brown and Co.

Sherman, Edmund (1991).  Reminiscence and the Self in Old Age.  New York: Springer Publishing.

Myerhoff, Barbara (1992).  Remembered Lives: The Work of Ritual. Storytelling, and Growing Older.  Edited with an introduction by Marc Kaminsky. Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan.

Casey, Edward (1987).  Remembering: A Phenomenological Study.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

There are three layers of requirement for this course.  They consist of pre-institute assignments, within-institute activities, and post-institute work.

(a) Pre-Institute Assignments
    All participants in this course are expected to have completed the reading, life-review interviews, and memoir vignettes as described in the instructor’s memorandum of April, 2002. This is true of students who are taking the course either for graduate credit, for continuing education units, or as an audit.

(b) Within-Institute Activities
    Participants are expected to attend all institute activities, including lectures, small and large group discussions, films, and other engagements. Since (like all other educational enterprises) the outcomes of this experience will be determined by the quality of the students’ inputs, active attention, contribution, and general engagement in the discourse of the week is expected.

(c) Post-Institute Work

    For those taking this course for academic credit, there will be three (3) brief written texts to be prepared after the week-long course is completed. These texts are due Friday, August 16, 2002.

I. All participants in the institute will write a brief but thoughtful letter to the older person they interviewed prior to the beginning of the course. In this letter, please thank the person for sharing her/his life history with you and reflect upon what that experience meant to you as the interviewer. Emphasis here should not be on length or “how many ideas I can get into two pages.” It should be on quality of thinking and clarity of expression. Remember the epigram - “long thoughts in a short space.”  Please send the letter to the person to whom it is written with a copy to the instructor.

II. Each member will choose two (2) of the following six product options:

(1) Design one life review activity for a client group of your choice. This is an opportunity to focus attention upon clients with whom you might ordinarily interact in your everyday work (i.e., adult educators with students or colleagues, long-term care nurses with their pa-tients, counselors with a group of clients, etc.) . The written activity design need not be long (one or two pages will suffice), but should include such variables as target audience, goals, the strategems that will be engaged, and resources that will be used to run the life review activity (readings, films, specific group discussion questions, etc.) While it is preferable that the group audience you choose consist of older persons (since this is a gerontology class), it is not required that this be the case.

This is an opportunity to be practical with the content of the institute. As HRD 558 is not a program development or design course, the nuances of design will not be taken into account in the evaluation of this product. Ideas, creativity, and the ability to apply the concepts treated in the course in a concrete professional situation will.

(2) Write an essay addressing Soren Kierkegaard’s idea, “We live life forward but understand it backward” (an alternative translation of this idea is, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward”) Like most essays in the social sciences, you may wish to reference books and articles that have influenced your thinking on this matter. Or, you may choose to use the genres of personal essay or journaling where references to other literature is not necessary. While, like with the letter assignment, I am interested in the quality of your thinking and the clarity of your expression, the way in which you choose to organize your ideas, the essay’s length, and the manner in which you express yourself is up to you.

(3) Read an autobiography or memoir of your choice (outside of the required course texts) and write a letter to me describing the meanings of this book as they relate to the central themes of this course.

(4) Write three (3) memoir vignettes reflecting experiences in your own life. These may be re-writes of those you prepared for the institute or they may be new.  Then compose a 3 - 5 page Learning Synthesis Report (LSR) in which you reflect on the meaning of your vignettes in light of the themes treated in this institute. For example, why did you choose to remember the specific events that you did? How did it feel to write about them? What, if any, integrating role did this reminiscing have? You do not have to ask these specific questions of yourself - myriad other questions will also serve appropriately for an LSR. Please write only one LSR to reflect on all three of your memoir vignettes.  Mail to the instructor the vignettes and the Learning Synthesis Report.

(5) Engage a creative project expressing something of the theme of this course. Examples may be a short sequence of poems, composing a song, writing a one-act play, painting or drawing a picture, choreographing a dance (if the latter, it will have to be put onto videotape).

(6) Keep a journal of readings and reflections about reminiscence and life review. This could be started during the institute week or immediately thereafter. The writing should trace your thought processes from approximately late June to middle-August (when it is due). Please have at least two entries per week, for a total of 12 - 15 to be handed in to the instructor. Committed journal writers may wish to select entries and edit from their regular journals to meet this post-institute option.

Participants’ final grade will be derived from a combination of the following variables: (1) the quality of one’s contribution to the institute sessions (2) one’s letter to the elder interviewed before the institute (3) one’s other two post-institute products.

While it is highly recommended that members complete the written requirements of the course by August 14, the grade of “Incomplete” will be given if necessary.
 

Using Program Content Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions -  Students are introducted to basic concepts and practices of adult education and gerontology.

Forging Connections and Partnerships  -  Participants in this institute have an opportunity to interact with practicing gerontology and adult education professionals in the community.  They may also choose to do a post-institute project in collaboration with a community program or agency.

Developing Best Professional Practices -  Curriculum design, facilitation, and life story interview practices will be both modeled and discussed

Validating Practices -  Students demonstrate their achievement through discussion and written course materials

Modeling Reflection and Critical Inquiry -  All members of the institute engage in discussion and reflection throughout the course
 

ACCOMMODATIONS

If you need adaptations or accomodations because of a disability, please contact Mike as soon as possible. Also, you may wish to make an appointment with the Office of Academic Support for Students with Disabilities. At any point in the course, if you encounter difficulty or feel you could be performing at a higher level, consult with Mike. For problems with writing skills and time management, please call the Learning Center (Luther Bonney Hall on the Portland Campus; 780-4228).  Help is also available through the Counseling Center (106 Payson Smith on the Portland Campus; 780-4050) and the Office of Academic Support for Students with Disabilities (2nd floor of Luther Bonney Hall; 780-4706)
 

OUTLINE OF LIFE REVIEW INSTITUTE

Monday, June 24        (AM)        Introduction to the course
                                                 Institute members’ introductions
                                                 Small Group Activities

                                 (PM)        Exploring the Life Review Literature
                                                 Film: “Peege”

Tuesday, June 25        (AM)       Aging and memory
                                                 Individual Exercises and Group Discussion

                                  (PM)       Film: “The Trip to Bountiful”
                                                 Discussion: Metaphor and the Human Life
                                                 Course

Weds.,  June 26          (AM)       Life Review and Developmental Psychology
                                                (Guest Facilitator: Professor Robert Atkinson)
                                                Discussion of Course Readings
                                                Review of Selected Research

                                  (PM)       Film: “Wild Strawberries”
                                                Group Discussion

Thursday, June 27      (AM)      The benefits of Life Review:
                                                           Toward the development of theory
                                               OLLI/Senior College Lifestory Writing
                                                  (Guests: Helene Sky and friends)

                                  (PM)       Family History/Genaeology (Guest Facilitator:
                                                   Gail Senese)
                                               "Oratoria" with Ruth Elkin                

Friday, June 28          (AM)       Life review and the “Speculum Mortis”
                                                Film: “The Dead”

                                  (PM)      Celebrating Reminiscence and Life Review
                                                   (readings by members of the institute)
                                                Institute Evaluation

Post-institute texts are due Friday, August 16, 2002.  Please mail to Mike c/o Bailey Hall 400-B, U.S.M., Gorham, ME. 04038.

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