Abstract:

Third age has become a relevant and complex problem for Western societies, requiring innovative approaches and tools. It concerns such the medical and economic fields, as the cultural, familial and the anthropological ones. This paper aims at exploring the possible contributions of a pedagogical action expressly focused on the mnestic system of the older persons, on their representation of the time and on Mental Time Travel (Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997). The possibilities offered by the in-depth analysis about the inter-functionality of memory, emotions and by the stimulation of neuronal plasticity through music, will be highlighted. This perspective, which might appear as mainly neuroscientific, would be, instead, an ideal framework for those strategies, which promote a pedagogy of memory and the narrative re-elaboration of the Self for older persons.

Lastly, Musical Autobiography (Strollo, 2014), which is an educational device crossing through said different research fields, introduces itself as an efficient tool in producing empowerment and transforming, at the same time, the relationship between the older persons and society.

Keywords:

Pedagogy of memory, emotions, music, musical autobiography, neural plasticity, mental time travel.