Nothing changes : Experiencing Omission But Remembering Commission

Abstract

This paper explores Kahneman’s conceptual distinction between the experiencing and remembering selves in relation to practices of reverse biographical identity work. The experiencing self refers to how things feel as they happen, whereas the remembering self describes how they appear in memory and recollection. I argue that this discrepancy occurs not only with the positive phenomena (things that really happened or existed) in our lives, but also with negative phenomena (absent, lost or missing things). Drawing on the sociology of nothing, I suggest that this corresponds to a transition from acts of omission to acts of commission. People experience biographical episodes of ‘nothing happening’ through random contingency, but (mis)remember them through stories with dramatic plotlines and agentic characters. This reflects the human narrativizing tendency to create order, coherence and meaning. I illustrate this with four cases, identifying intrapsychic and interpersonal narrative practices.