Life Scripts

Mining Memories and Delving into Life Stories

Jefferson A. Singer, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Connecticut College and a clinical psychologist in private practice. He is the author of Memories that Matter: How to Use Self-defining Memories to Understand and Change Your Life. See full bio

March 26, 2008

“Why does that little girl have dirty skin?”

With Barack Obama's recent historical speech on the continuing racial divide in the country, I thought it would be helpful to share some of my research on people's earliest memories of racial difference and prejudice. The take-home message is earliest encounters linger and will influence our lives, if we let them do so! Read More

March 17, 2008

Will David Paterson Be a "Visionary" Leader?

Given that I am currently living in England, I had not seen any pictures or read much information about David Paterson, the new governor of New York State, replacing Eliot Spitzer. Today I realized that he is not only the first African-American governor of New York, but he is also legally blind. So what do we know about memory in the blind? Read More

March 12, 2008

Is Spitzer Already Working on His Comeback?

Why are we Americans such suckers for stories of redemption? Will Eliot Spitzer follow the lead of my home state’s disgraced ex-Governor John Rowland (who also resigned) and take to the lecture tour, saying “I made mistakes,” while ending up with a lucrative lobbying or consultant job? If so, the answer lies in our cultural weakness for the happy ending. Read More

March 6, 2008

Jefferson Singer asks, "Are You Ready for Your Close-Up?

In the classic Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson plays a washed-up silent film star. At the end of the film, after shooting her younger lover, she goes mad and surrounded by news cameras, imagines that she is back on a Hollywood set. She announces, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” In this one moment her life of vanity, glamour, and despair is captured. Are there single moments in your life, positive or negative, that capture who you are and what you are all about? Read More

March 2, 2008

Will Obama's Election Fire the Flashbulbs of Memory?

If Barack Obama is elected president, will the night of his election linger in people’s memories like other momentous events in American history, such as the landing on the moon, the assassination of JFK, or the events of 9/11? In the parlance of memory research the latter three events all generated “flashbulb memories” in millions of people who witnessed these epoch-changing milestones on television or learned the news by radio or from another person. Would Obama’s election do the same? Read More