Care as narrative practice in the context of long-term care: Theoretical considerations.

Aims And Objectives: In this article, we introduce care itself as a narrative practice. We emphasise that all interactions between care providers and older adults in long-term care settings are narrative in nature and foreground experience.

Background: Every person consists of innumerable stories based on experiences over time.

The importance of being ironic: narrative openness and personal resilience in later life.

This essay applies a narrative perspective to the topic of resilience. On various fronts (physical, social, biographical), aging itself, it argues, pushes us past a perception of aging as intrinsically tragic and toward a more ironic stance instead, one marked by increased acceptance of uncertainty and ambiguity. Moreover, intentional engagement in narrative reflection-by means of integrative reminiscence, life review, and the like-fosters such a stance directly by facilitating narrative openness and, with it, "a good strong story" for coping with the challenges of later life.

The anthropology of dementia: a narrative perspective.

This article draws on recent thinking in the field of narrative gerontology to lend support to Mahnaz Hashmi's "anthropological perspective" on dementia. From a narrative perspective, the relational component of human life--and thus of dementia--is underscored. Moreover, when the narrative dimensions of memory are considered, the line between "normal" and "pathological" is revealed as finer than commonly assumed.

Time, story, and wisdom: emerging themes in narrative gerontology.

Narrative approaches in the field of aging are receiving increasing attention by theorists and practitioners alike. This article draws on recent thinking in narrative gerontology to look at three aspects of aging on which a narrative perspective can shed further light. In relation to the temporal aspects, the notion of storytime is examined.