Memory and the Sense of Self

"Psychologist Daniel Kahneman made an important distinction between what he called the Experiencing Self and the Remembering Self. Thoughts, feelings, and sensations occurring now comprise the Experiencing Self. The Remembering Self constructs a narrative of life based on memories. But it's prone to biases, such as focusing on the peak and end of a past experience, while largely ignoring its duration."

"Specificity means recalling a particular event at a particular time and place. For instance, my client Susan reported that last week her partner sincerely apologized for ignoring her, and the two of them went for a pleasant walk around the lake near their house. We tend not to recall events with specificity. Rather, we generalize. For example, Susan said at the beginning of our session: "Last week was good." Only when I asked her for specifics was she able to recall them."

The Experiencing Self consists of present thoughts, feelings, and sensations, while the Remembering Self constructs a life narrative from memories and is prone to biases such as peak-end focus and neglect of duration. Memory specificity involves recalling particular events at particular times and places; lack of specificity leads to overgeneralization and weakens self-coherence. Clinical observation links disturbed sense of self and personality pathology to memories that lack specificity and coherence. Asking for specificity can help recover concrete examples but may be misinterpreted as disbelief. Important memories should be made specific and integrated into a coherent narrative.

Read at Psychology Today