The Formation and Change of Collective Memory and Narrative of the Past in Early China
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Csikszentmihalyi, Mark A
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
UC Berkeley
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Body granting the degree
UC Berkeley
Text preceding or following the note
2019
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Humans perceive and conceptualize who we are by making a consistent and coherent story of the past. Without making this story, existence is fragmented and dissolved into a series of physical, chemical, or biological states that we can only passively accept. Instead, we recall past moments, selecting and linking them to other ones in a logical manner, composing a reasonable story that explains our existence consistently and coherently. Only by choosing, connecting, and sequencing our experiences and signifying them with concepts, and thereby producing an understandable story, can we identify who we are and what we do.