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communication based on the handling of shared languages. So, from its very con-
ception, expressed individual identity, together with its consciousness, is the result
of the infl uence of other people and of our connection with them. These individuals
that infl uence us, and connections with them, in turn, do not necessarily have to
form part of the present of the narrative. In fact, they can be from the past or the
future. Therefore, refl ections regarding our identity can only be produced through
our comparisons with other people at specifi c times. The refl ections are only pro-
duced when we see ourselves in others that are, were or will be (Rankin
2002
). All
of this leads us to explore the forms in which we refl ect our conception of time in
narratives. We shall now deal with this topic.
5.4
Narrative Time
As we have said, the ordering of the fragments of narratives implies making deci-
sions about the temporal organisation of the story one wishes to tell. It implies
considering that the arrangement of the fragments will affect their perception and
effects. For example, from the plot point of view, going into the past of a story that
is represented in the present implies placing ourselves in the past from our memory
of the past. Considering the discourse, the pace at which changes in the fragments
occur, their succession, we can provoke different emotional relations depending on
whether it is fast or slow. In whatever case, due to the mental projection of time,
whether a subjective view of the past, through memory, or the subjective ideation of
the future, through imagination, these are processes guided by the ego (Tulving
2002
) and not so different, as we shall shortly be seeing. To imagine the future, we
travel with our notion of time, with our subjective time, determined by memory.
Projecting ourselves into the future, therefore, implies going back over our autobi-
ography. This approach has led to a large number of empirical studies, particularly
associated to cognitive sciences, which we will be looking at in more detail later.
5.5
The Accepted Notions of Time
The immediately preceding refl ections are based on one of the most popular and
interdisciplinary conceptions of time: time's arrow (Coveney and Hughfi eld
1990
;
Davies
1995
; Gould
1987
). Based on Heraclitus' ever-fl owing river, and in whose
water is impossible to bathe twice, time is considered to be something irreversible
that goes from the past to present. In this conception, change is more important than
stability, events are more important than laws, contexts are more important than
universals and possibilities are more salient than predictions (Mainemelis
2002
;
Maturana
1995
; Maturana and Varela
1992
; Prigogine
1990
). Considering time
from this lineal perspective leads us to believe that the personal experience of life is
an irreversible process, which goes from birth to death, and whose most important
moments are certain happenings (Mainemelis
2002
).
