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Every existence is marked by events and some of them can be likened to biographical disruptions that may lead to annihilation or to self-reconstruction. These events usually lead to a self-evaluative process in the light of a pre-existing identity continuum. With a view to understanding the process of learning and self-reconstruction in a situation of biographical rupture, we seek to shed light on the psychic phenomena that are at work within a human reality rooted in the experience of multiple and painful trials such as illness, dismissal, retirement, separation, divorce and death. Each of these situations remains singular, but they nonetheless share some common characteristics. They are major biographical events that mark a turning point in life with a “before” and an “after”. Using biographical, clinical-type interviews, we analyzed the multiple ways in which the person operates his/her own transformations and carries out a self-learning endeavor that can be illustrated by Marthe, one of our interviewees: “And so, I discovered a Marthe inside.”