Definition of Life History

As its name suggests, a life story is a personal account of one's existence. In other words, it is the testimony that an individual offers in relation to her personal experiences. These types of stories can be made in writing or orally. The concept of life history is equivalent to others, such as Biography, autobiography or memories.

A research tool in the social sciences

Certain personal accounts are of singular interest to historians, anthropologists, or psychologists. His interest is not in the strikingness of the life story itself, but is interesting because it can be a paradigmatic model on a historical period, a way of life or to better understand a mental pathology. In this sense, a life story of an albino in Tanzania is a story that provides very useful information about people with this disease. genetics and its social reality.

Any narration autobiographical has useful elements for a researcher. For this reason, the term psychobiography or psychohistory has been coined, since both refer to the connection between particular experiences and the general ideas of an era.

In the tradition literary there are the so-called psychoanalytic biographies, in which the life of certain famous people is approached from the perspective of psychoanalysis.

Regardless of the Format that has a life history, the account of the personal experiences of an individual serves to know a vision of reality. In this vision there are objective data (dates and events) and also subjective evaluations or descriptions about everyday life.

The life story of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank is a book autobiographical in which a life story is told that has allowed us to better understand the persecution of the Jews during World War II. It was originally a personal diary in which Anne Frank, a Teen Jewish, tells how her life unfolds in an attic with her family and some acquaintances who have to remain in hiding for fear of being captured by the Nazis.

After two years living in hiding, all of them were sent to a concentration camp. Anne Frank died at the age of 15 in the Bergen-Belsen camp. Anne Frank's father was able to survive and when World War II ended he recovered his daughter's diary so it could be published.

The life story of Anne Frank is more than just a diary of a teenage girl. In its pages the reader finds a personal testimony about a reality that affected millions of Jews in Europe. It must be remembered, on the other hand, that Anne Frank was fully aware of what her diary could mean for future generations.

Photos: Fotolia - viktoriia1974 / XtravaganT