Discerning the History Inscribed Within

How do the various phenomena that we encounter in the world—from concrete historical events to mediated representations, as may be found in books and films and other “second-hand” sources—permeate us and become inscribed in memory? Where does all of this information “go” after we have encountered it, and how is it metabolized? Some dimensions of such experiences no doubt dissipate or disappear, whereas others seep into our psyches often in ways unbeknownst to us, thus becoming part of what is called the narrative unconscious. The narrative unconscious thus refers to those culturally rooted aspects of our histories that have yet to become an explicit part of our life stories, and it includes not only those events and encounters that occur in our lifetime but also those that precede us. By exploring some significant sites of the narrative unconscious, we may more readily discern the deep historical roots of our own psychological formation.