Variations of the Self: The Continuity of Life after Contact with Violent Death

Résumé

Based on field research with a support group for relatives of road traffic victims; military police officers withdrawn from working on the streets due to physical and/or psychological problems; and people forced to become wheelchair users following accidents and now training in a sports-related project, the article analyses these actors’ memories of pain and the impact of these recollections on their everyday activities in the present. It discusses how these people have coped with changes in their ‘schemes of relevance,’ their relationships with third parties, environments, and objects, which point to profound changes in themselves after (and due to) encounters with death. I highlight how distinct conceptions of self are managed by these interlocutors to give coherence to their sense of self and to stabilize their emotions.