Using Reminiscence Group Members' Family Slogans and Epitaphs to Enhance Their Planning Abilities

Abstract

Introducing a focus on family slogans and epitaphs into reminiscence groups serves three functions. It facilitates the group process by engaging all members in selecting the slogans and epitaphs that they discern in the memories the reviewers share. It also shows how these family dynamics over the grandparents' and parents' generations condition, if not determine, the slogans and epitaphs of the reviewers themselves. Finally, it enhances reviewers' planning for themselves by alerting them both to the accommodations they may need to make to their programming and to the talents they can draw upon because of the family they were born into.

Key Words:

• Family slogans
• family epitaphs
• reminiscence groups
• life review
• planning