Fig 1.
The relation between contingency, life narratives, mimesis and integration of experiences of contingency.
After a contingent life event, which might result in an existential crisis, a process of integration of experiences of contingency starts to facilitate restoration of coherence and integration of this experience into the life narrative. The arrows indicate respectively a decrease and subsequent increase of coherence of the life narrative. This process has similarities with the mimesis process which describes the phases of development of a narrative concerning a specific experience, which as the cycle represents, is an iterative process where one can move through several mimesis cycles to process the experience of contingency until the experience feels sufficiently integrated into one’s life narrative.
Table 1.
Participating artists.
Table 2.
Topic list interview artists.
Table 3.
Main procedural steps.
Fig 2.
The subsequent phases of co-creation are numbered to indicate their temporal aspect.
Fig 3.
The position of co-creation within the theoretical framework.
Co-creation consists of four distinct phases (Art communication, Element compilation, Consolidation, Reflection) which support certain aspects of the reworking and integration of a contingent life event into the life story, i.e. the integration of an experience of contingency as described in mimesis. The arrows indicate where the phases of co-creation affect the mimesis process, and thereby support the process of integration of experiences of contingency as described in the mimesis process. In both co-creation and mimesis, people can jump back and forth between phases, thus leading to an iterative process. Self-transcendence facilitates the patient to move towards more fluidity in the life narrative, enabling the integration of experiences of contingency.