The importance of a life review.

By William Damon, Ph.D

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The development of purpose in life, which I define as an active commitment to accomplish aims that are meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self, is future-oriented by nature. Purposeful people look ahead to goals they seek to accomplish over the long haul. The psychological benefits of purpose lie in strengths that forward-looking commitments bring: motivation, energy, achievement, hope, and resilience. In every age cohort I have studied, from adolescents to the elderly, purpose stands out as a key to positive living.

As a helping profession, psychology has always sought ways to counsel people on self-discovery, personal growth, and coping with distress. The field’s cognitive revolution in the latter half of the 20th century directed attention away from people’s past and toward their present mode of experiencing the world. Cognitive psychologists became uncomfortable with the idea that people are chained to their past and driven by events that they can’t even remember. They believe that if people could be encouraged to think about their lives in more rational, stable, and positive ways, they would become better able to cope with problems and seize opportunities.

Most recently, psychology’s focus has shifted to the influence of future aspirations on identity and self-development. The theoretical foundations for this approach were established by the writings of Martin Seligman and Roy Baumeister on “prospective thinking,” which suggest that by imagining hopeful future prospects we can shape our development in more agentic and adaptive ways than we could by dwelling on our past problems.

Still, the past does matter—especially in how we think about it. A capacity for looking forward, with renewed commitments to life-fulfilling purposes, requires looking backward in an open and receptive way. This was brought home to me by a revelation late in my life that changed my understanding of how I came to be the person I am. I discovered that my father, who I had assumed was killed or “missing” in World War II, had a substantial career abroad after he abandoned my mother and me. Not only did this discovery shake up my sense of identity, it uncovered a host of regrets, resentments, and confusions that long unsettled my emotional state.

My prior work on purpose development was not sufficient for the self-examination I felt compelled to carry out. For that task, I adopted the personal narrative approach known as “the life review.” A life review is a structured procedure for reconstructing our past in a manner that can provide three personal benefits we need as we grow older:

1. An acceptance of the events and choices that shaped our lives, reflecting gratitude for the life we’ve been given rather than self-doubt and regret.
2. A more authentic (and thus more robust) understanding of who we are and how we got to be that way, reflecting the highly developed, reassuring sense of self that psychologist Erik Erikson called “ego integrity.”
3. A greater clarity in the direction our lives should take going forward, reflecting what we have learned from the experiences and the purposes that have given our lives meaning in the past.
   The life review was pioneered by psychiatrist Robert Butler, who was concerned with the problem of increased depression in aging patients. He believed these depressive symptoms stemmed from the aimless way patients remembered their pasts. But by finding positive benefits in these experiences—even ones that appeared unfortunate at the time—people could affirm their values and chart a hopeful path forward.
   Butler believed reflective life reviews could promote intellectual and personal growth and wisdom throughout the lifespan. Among the psychological benefits he noted were the resolution of old conflicts; an optimistic view of the future; “a sense of serenity and pride in accomplishment”; a “feeling of having done one’s best”; a capacity to enjoy such present pleasures as humor, love, nature, and contemplation; and “a comfortable acceptance of the life cycle, the universe, and the generations.” This, of course, is a compelling list of the main pillars of psychological health.
   My take on the life review has two paradoxes regarding psychological development in the adult years of life:
4. The capacity for looking forward in a positive way requires looking backward in an open, undefended, and honest way, with past memories structured by one’s present values and future aspirations.
5. Autobiographical discovery deepens a person’s understanding of self while also broadening knowledge of others who have influenced the formation of one’s self, often in previously unrecognized ways.
   The search for purpose never ceases. As we age, we entertain new aspirations and take on new commitments. In doing so, we draw on interests and capacities developed earlier in life. The accomplishments of our early years can set the stage for a later life of meaning, fulfillment, and contribution to the common good. A life review can bring all of this into focus.
   Purpose is a lifelong need. When we look forward as young people, we may imagine it will be a straight line, but later, when we look back, we see it as more evolving and meandering—and less predictable: Our purposes change as we adapt to changing circumstances. A life review offers us a way to look back and connect the dots. It can help us recall the purposes we’ve had, integrate them with our present circumstances, and envision future opportunities.
   Our past matters, and all of the times of our lives, from remembered origins to imagined futures, provide us with material for self-definition and potential growth. It is up to us to actively search through this material and integrate what we find into a coherent, authentic, and gratifying vision of who we have been, who we are, and who we aim to be.

William Damon, Ph.D., is a professor at Stanford University, the director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.