Culture - Memory Freudian Perspective of Memory:

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Freudian Perspective of Memory: Article Review

Freudian Perspectives of Memory: Article Review

This article review is similar to the other article review regarding the nature of memory, yet in this case, the articles to be referenced here, describe the nature of memory with regard to psychoanalysis and the interplay among reality, fantasy, and memory. Though he began writing and practicing psychoanalysis before or concurrently with the advent of the motion picture, many of Sigmund Freud's ideas as presented in the articles to be discussed draw many similarities between the nature of memory and the nature of the screen or projected image. The author's of the articles not written by Freud make arguments and assessments of his ideas in the modern age, particularly with the advent of many digital technologies and a more globalized age. The paper will elucidate the main points drawing parallels and connections among the ideas presented and the perspectives of memory and psychoanalysis.

"Screen Memories" is part of Freud's fundamental theories regarding childhood traumas, memory, and neurosis, with specific focus upon the realm of hysteria. (1899) Throughout this excerpt from a larger work (On Metapsychology), Freud explains the concept of psychical content substitution. (1899) It is by primarily this concept that Freud explains the nature of hysteria and the manifestation of psychosis or neurosis in adults who have experience childhood traumas that often caused mental health problems when encountered as adults. (Freud, 1899,-Page 310) From the perspective of psychoanalysis, Freud elaborates, using case examples of his patients, the fallibility and malleability of memory as a number of his patients substitute fantasies as childhood memories, calling the forged memories "scenes" that the patients invent, believe, and embed as their own memories. (Freud, 1899,-Page 318)

In "A Note Upon the Mystic Writing Pad," Freud again compares memory and the nature of the unconscious to a sort of writing pad, palimpsest, or media technology. Readers should consider applying this framework to the 21st century, a highly globalized and technologically mediated period in human history, specifically in commerce, politics, and socialization. He sees the mind, memory and the unconscious as individual mechanisms that combine with others to create the apparatus of the mind. (Freud, 1925,-Page 116) In the early 20th century, Freud called the mind an apparatus. In the 21st century, psychoanalysts may more likely refer to the mind as a computer. Freud's ideas and theories about the connections and functions of the mind prove intriguing when reconsidered and refashioned for 21st century psychoanalytic consideration.

Terdiman provides a conceptual overview of Freud's general beliefs regarding memory over the course of his entire body of work. Terdiman argues that Freud had an obsession with memory -- direct or indirect, as most of Freud's fundamental psychoanalytic concepts and terms are described within the context of a functioning or malfunctioning memory. (Terdiman, Page 94) Terdiman further agrees with the author's contention that to revisit and reconsider Freud's views of memory in a modern (or post modern) context proves useful in interpreting changes in perspective, subjectivity, and memory. (Terdiman, Page 95) Moreover, Terdiman agrees with Freud's sentiments that memory is not static and to regard the nature of memory with a non-realist perspective, in order to gain a broader, truer, more Freudian understanding of memory.

Kennedy too attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of Freud's theories regarding memory as it relates to psychoanalysis. He uses a term, "psychoanalytic memory" to refer to the memories recalled exclusively during a psychoanalysis session. He contends that this kind of memory is still unstable, unclear, and complex; it is neither wholly reliable as true. (Kennedy, Page 180) Kennedy describes the history of psychoanalysis as one of layers, quite similar to the layered, intertwining and persistent presence of the unconscious. (Terdiman, Page 195)