Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Approaches to the study of autobiographical memory
- 2 The basic systems model of autobiographical memory
- 3 Identity, emotion, and the social matrix of autobiographical memory: a psychoanalytic narrative view
- 4 On the nature of autobiographical memory
- 5 Reflections on autobiographical memory
- Part II Neural studies of autobiographical memory
- Part III Social and cultural aspects of autobiographical memory
- Part IV Development of autobiographical memory from infancy to old age
- Part V Evolution and basic processes of autobiographical memory
- Part VI Discussion
- Index
- References
3 - Identity, emotion, and the social matrix of autobiographical memory: a psychoanalytic narrative view
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Approaches to the study of autobiographical memory
- 2 The basic systems model of autobiographical memory
- 3 Identity, emotion, and the social matrix of autobiographical memory: a psychoanalytic narrative view
- 4 On the nature of autobiographical memory
- 5 Reflections on autobiographical memory
- Part II Neural studies of autobiographical memory
- Part III Social and cultural aspects of autobiographical memory
- Part IV Development of autobiographical memory from infancy to old age
- Part V Evolution and basic processes of autobiographical memory
- Part VI Discussion
- Index
- References
Summary
Psychoanalysis is over a hundred years old, and the cognitive revolution in psychology dates back over half a century. Psychoanalysis no longer focuses on sexual drives and the Oedipus complex, and cognitive psychology has long transcended the computer metaphor. Still, theoretical traditions leave a strong, often implicit imprint on later generations by passing on basic assumptions and taken-for-granted methods. Consequently I was more than happy to follow the editors’ suggestion to compare psychoanalytic and cognitive concepts of autobiographical memory. When I came across Martin Conway’s 2006 paper, “Reading Freud,” my heart sank, because on three pages he shows how central insights of Freud have been taken up by and have become ingrained in current cognitive research, foremost in his own work. On the basis of these commonalities, this chapter will highlight three differences in the general approach to autobiographical memory between current psychoanalytic and cognitive theories. These are (1) the relevance of identity to memory; (2) the hierarchical nature of memory modalities, ranging from action to emotion to words and narrative; and (3) the intrinsically interpersonal and social nature of remembering. Because psychoanalytic theories are not based on experimental, but on clinical evidence, my approach weds psychoanalytic theory with narrative methods. Therefore points will be illustrated with examples from narrative research and clinical vignettes.
Motivation, identity, and narrative: the life story
Cognitive models of normal autobiographical memory
For over a century, memory psychology followed Ebbinghaus’ (1880) model of memorizing minimal isolated elements and measuring their reproducibility over time. Tulving (1972) originally coined the terms semantic memory for knowledge of interrelated, atemporal items versus episodic memory for more accidental, unintegrated items related only to the situation in which they were first learned, the prime example being lists of meaningless words introduced by Ebbinghaus. Semantic memory opened the path for cognitive psychology to build models of the organization of knowledge and its influence on the learning and retaining of new information.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Understanding Autobiographical MemoryTheories and Approaches, pp. 33 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
References
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