Autobiographical writing and narrative medicine share the goal of guiding one’s soul through a journey of healing. Stefania Polvani, president of the Italian Narrative Medicine Association, and her collegue Maria Pia Urbani, met up near Anghiari, where the Free University for Autobiography was created. While reflecting on the value of autobiographical writing, they of course started talking about the Erasmus+ project “My Life In Europe”.
This project, which is directed at senior adults (with or without disabilities), aims at creating a “serious game”, both in a digital and paper version, a free app downloadable from https://mylifeineurope.nkey.it/ on PC, tablet and mobile, and a methodological manual, for the dissemination and promotion of autobiographical writing at European level. The game consists of a series of decks of cards, each characterized by an image, a word and a proposal of writing, which players, helped by a facilitator, use as stimulus to write about themselves. At the end of the game all the writing can be downloaded in PDF and shared with people from different countries, thus creating a European memory archive.
The narrative stimuli given by the cards are arranged in chronological order, so each player can weave the plot of their autobiography. This way, in a judgement-free, safe narrative context in which the facilitator encourages listening and sharing, one can overcome, through writing, life’s hardships – find a new balance and start fresh, with a renewed sense of awareness. In the upcoming meeting, which will take place in Portugal, the project’s partners will share their abilities to create new decks of cards exploring the development potential of the “My Life in Europe” game.
