Analysis of the process of lifelong self-creation imposes biographical approach, because biography and self-creation are seen as interdependent spheres of human activity, ex-pressed in narratives (Selvi, 2009, 51–66).
It is crucial to look at person’s biography from the perspective of their individual life story that consists of their subjective feelings, observations, thoughts and experiences that reflect their being and living in the world (Bartosz, 1995, p. 54). As emphasised by M. Kohli, autobiography reveals the structure of life as a structure of experience and individual meanings of the subject. It is a methodology model of (hermeneutical) un-derstanding the life of individuals and a way to enter into their historical or social reality (Kohli, 1981, s. 61–75; see also: Berryman, 1999, 71–84). The author of autobiographical narrative reflects on his or her own biography, becoming at the same time its disposer (holder) and creative interpreter. This biographical reflection reveals the structure and sense of axiological order identified as important in the construction of biography on the basis of some episodes from the subject’s life (Schütze, 2008, s. 163–165).
Autobiography is not only a set of chronologically ordered events, behaviours, emotions and life choices kept in memory, or records of what happened and will never happen again. It is not about chronically replayed life, but rather interpreting the meanings — noticed and re-discovered by the subject in relation to individually selected sequences of events. These events are consciously revised in the perspective of lifelong experience and subject’s own logos. It is the story of life, many times reflected upon and considered by the subject, playing an important role in the light of his present and future (Dubas, 2017, 65–69). According to M. Romanowska, autobiography enables the fullest self-un-derstanding and “insight into the meaning of one’s own being in the world — of one’s own creativity. In the light of his whole life, the subject is able to see his present situation in the most adequate proportions, in the widest relations to other situations and with reference to the widest range of values” (Straś-Romanowska, 1997, p. 151). Therefore, autobiography plays an important role from the point of view of self-creational aspira-tions of the subject. Constructing narrative knowledge about self on the basis of auto-biographical reflection (Trzebiński, 2005, p. 68–69) is crucial for the readiness to take up self-creational activities.
But paradoxically, it is not recalling the past that stimulates self-creational thinking and acting, but evaluating this past that empowers people to creatively design and rebuild their life (Lalak, 2010, 396). Autobiographical reflection allows people to step towards the future understood as intentional aspiring to what they think matters, what they think should happen, what they want to make real in their life. In the context of self-creation, the key value of biography is its prospective character. Biographical reflection does not end with thinking about what happened. Based on multiple interpretations and
reconstructions of biographical experiences in the course of life, it helps to lead one’s own biography according to decisions and judgements that uncover meanings and val-ues that are central to the subject (Morris, 1966, 31–53).
Complex nature of reflections undertaken in the process of self-creation is revealed in the fact that it combines different dimensions of human existence. Such multitude of ap-proaches and perspectives to recognise self and life, and possible options for one’s own future, is actually constantly updated and revalued decision about self and own becom-ing oriented towards reachbecom-ing personal maturity. This reflection motivates the subject to set up symbolic signposts pointing towards the valuable goals. These signposts are seen in the biographical perspective that focuses on recognising and interpreting meanings adopted by the subject as crucial to understand his own biography. It is contemplative (what do I exist for?), searching (who am I and what am I like?), ethical (who and what should I be and become?), designing (who and what can I be?) and volitional (who and what do I want to be?) thinking.
The designing character of self-creation reflects subject’s efforts to create himself through opening to new values or new meanings of values that are present in his axiosphere. On the other hand, it happens through narrative insights into his own biography. Thus, man remains in a state of creative confrontation with himself (Neckar, 2000, p. 144–147).
When evaluating his past, he opens to the future by creating (in the presence) his own structured system of meanings.
According to J. Bruner, narrative is the main means to understand human existence in the world and the possibilities to shape this world. As he puts it, “narrative imitates life, life imitates narrative” (Bruner, 1990, p. 3). Narrative being and experiencing plays two important roles in human life. They are identified with ordering biographical experi-ences and assigning meanings to them, connecting seemingly unconnected events, re-interpreting and reconstructing them, and setting single episodes in a wider semantic context. Narratives allow to structurise experience, construct the image of self, enable self-awareness and self-understanding. A. Grzegorek says that without narrative forms of thinking “our experience would be pointless and unorganised, and understanding the world, other people and self would be impossible. Using narrative thinking about self al-lows us to construct stories about our life, and this is the base to build our (narratively understood) identity” (Grzegorek, 2003, p. 225). In this approach, identity is the story of life, in which subject finds answers to fundamental questions: “who am I and what am I like?”. On the basis of this story he can also decide about his own personal development (McAdams, 1985, s. 18).
Narrative identity is a general construction that joints important facts, both happy, in-spiring, opening ones as well as traumatic, suppressed and closing certain stages in life.
Thus, life-story is the process of ongoing interpretation of facts, assigning meanings to them and prioritising them. During this process, narratives created by the subject are organised in a complex but coherent structure with a main leading motive. The process
of biography construction ensures continuity and coherence of subject’s life experience, and evaluates certain facts in this life by assigning meaning to them.
From the point of view of his narrative identity, man sees his own life and himself in a wider existential perspective, as a dynamically shaped subject in the process of personal self-creation. Autobiographical narrative is then treated as a “key” to discover and un-derstand one’s own existence (Skibińska, 2006, p. 146–149). The structure of biographical narrative can be viewed as a story, with its different components such as: storyline, place of action, character’s traits. They integrate the whole story told by it’s main character about himself and his relations with the world. In the perspective of autobiographical narrative, self-understanding depends not that much on the reliability of archive information about self but rather on finding the “key” or the unique way of “mythicise” one’s own life.
Narrative is a reflective referring to events that construct subject’s own life. His life-story, enriched with new “stories” (partial narratives) together with their meanings and inter-pretations, involves past and present, and creates a coherent “journey story”. Through narrative the subject also learns about and interprets the world and self, builds knowl-edge about the surrounding world and self, and at the same time organises and directs his actions. Thus, knowing self is a complex, lifelong process that takes place in the sphere of autobiographical narrative. As a consequence, thanks to awareness of individual possibilities and potential of (un)lived life, this project called human life ceases to be a fight or a struggle, and becomes a challenge (Rosner, 2003, p. 35).
M. Foucault points that out that since one cannot separate the life lived from the life told, it means life is how one interprets and re-interprets it, tells and tells it again (Foucault, 1990, p. 14–24). In this context of course, it is about identifying an imminent relation between biographical thinking that uncovers the reality in its subjective and intersubjec-tive dimension, and understanding the reality and being ready to shape it. Biographical thinking is changeable and flexible in terms of interpreting and prioritising meanings that constitute organised self-awareness resulting from one’s own life story. It ensures
“the sense of continuity of cognition, experiences and actions, and constant interpre-tation of self” (Dyczewski, 1995, p. 67–68) in the process of personal transformation stimulated by environmental and individual factors.
Autobiographical narrative provides opportunities for adopting free and multidimen-sional attitude towards own life-story, and does it by comparing, modifying and prior-itising, at its sole discretion, different narratives in one, coherent “journey story”. The journey is then a metaphor of subject’s wandering understood as the reality of internal development (Tokarska, 2005, p. 136). Through autobiographical narrative, individuals not only relate themselves to certain facts by assigning certain meanings to them, but also determine the range and depth of constantly formed individual world of meanings, of personal logos (Ablewicz, 2003, p. 198–200, 238–241).
Depending on individual understanding of being in the world, chosen type of rela-tionship with the world and their own role in the world, individuals influence their
development through self-narrative. This development can be oriented towards differ-ent goals: adaptive, transgressive or transcenddiffer-ent (Wąsiński, 2011, p. 315–328). In this context, ongoing efforts of directing their own biography are the space of personal self-creation (Wain, 2007, 163–180).