offers possibilities for an interpretation of the personality development through the
existing social relationships. The autobiography facilitates learning in the way the client
makes sense of his/her life pathway, and the counsellor has the opportunity to identify the
motivational patterns in the client’s behaviour or the construct system through which the
latter sees the world.
The method offers an image about the client’s interpersonal relationships, adjustment to
social groups, and adaptation to institutional settings. Thus we get access to information
on the social dimension of the personality.
The way the client involves himself in the writing task could also be a sign for the
counsellor of the personality he/she is observing.
Autobiography helps with evaluation / diagnose / interpretation of the client’s personality;
providing useful information for understanding the way the client organizes his/her life
and acts in the world, and construct system on which he/she structures this world; all
these map out the client’s own universe, and an image of his/her own development in it.
Gison Gibson and Mitchell (1981) present the autobiography as a self-reporting
technique, one of the most valued approaches that imply the active participation of the
client. This technique facilitates understanding the strengths, weaknesses, and uniqueness
of the person both by the counsellor and the client.
The autobiographic method is different from other techniques used in counselling because
it gives the client the opportunity to describe one’s own life as he/she lived it and
currently sees it. This method also gives the client the space to express what he/she
considers being important, to emphasize likes and dislikes, identify values, describe
interests and aspirations, acknowledge success and failures, bring out the meaningful
interpersonal relationships. The client discovers actions and influences that gave a sense
to his/her life and that he/she could explain to others with no difficulty.
Autobiography is a „personal memory reconstruction”, „a shared mirror, interpreted
subjectively” derived from the reflection on the self and its development.
The autobiographic process could bring to the surface traumatic, misunderstood
experiences, unresolved conflicts, which could stop client’s evolution. At the same time,
this method could support self-identity formation and even the cognitive development,
because it involves the reconciliation and the coming together of all life stages, making
possible to regaining coherence and rediscovering the meaning of existence.
Autobiography could explore any of the personal life dimensions (professional, artistic,
cognitive, emotional) and the subject becomes more aware of each of these dimensions at
the perceptive, emotional, and intellectual level.
The writing could be done with some indications regarding the choice of theme, the
selection of an episode or a more important relationship, or considering the whole
lifespan without pursuing a narrative pattern. This process describes a reversed way for
searching new meanings in the personal path. The method is based on retrospection, as a