Association of ideas; Memory; Paragrammatism; Psychoanalysis; Psychology, Pathological; Repression (Psychology)
Almost exactly as in the forgetting of names, faulty recollections can
also appear in the forgetting of impressions, and when finding credence
they may be designated as delusions of memory. The memory disturbance
in pathologic cases (in paranoia it actually plays the rôle of a
constituting factor in the formation of delusions) has brought to light
an extensive literature in which there is no reference whatever to its
being motivated. As this theme also belongs to the psychology of the
neuroses it goes beyond our present treatment. Instead, I will give
from my own experience a curious example of memory disturbance showing
clearly enough its determination through unconscious repressed material
and its connection with this material.
While writing the latter chapters of my volume on the interpretation
of dreams, I happened to be in a summer resort without access to
libraries and reference books, so that I was compelled to introduce
into the manuscript all kinds of references and citations from memory.
These I naturally reserved for future correction. In the chapter
on day-dreams I thought of the distinguished figure of the poor
book-keeper in Alphonse Daudet’s _Nabab_, through whom the author
probably described his own day-dreams. I imagined that I distinctly
remembered one fantasy of this man, whom I called Mr. Jocelyn, which he
hatched while walking the streets of Paris, and I began to reproduce
it from memory. This fantasy described how Mr. Jocelyn boldly hurled
himself at a runaway horse and brought it to a standstill; how the
carriage door opened and a great personage stepped from the coupé,
pressed Mr. Jocelyn’s hand and said: “You are my saviour--I owe my life
to you! What can I do for you?”
I assured myself that casual inaccuracies in the rendition of this
fantasy could readily be corrected at home on consulting the book. But
when I perused _Nabab_ in order to compare it with my manuscript, I
found to my very great shame and consternation that there was nothing
to suggest such a dream by Mr. Jocelyn; indeed, the poor book-keeper
did not even bear this name--he was called Mr. Joyeuse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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