| Abstract: | The neuroscience of memory enriches and expands our theory of psychoanalytic interaction. There are 2 broad modes of processing memory: implicit (never experienced in symbolic form) and explicit (which is symbolic). Memory is not a thing, but a process, activated by a retrieval cue that is either external or internal. Each memory is an amalgam of the memory itself and the retrieval cue. Using these phenomena derived from the neuroscience of memory, the authors argue that (a) the analyst acts as a retrieval cue making any memory a coconstructed phenomenon; (b) each memory is constructed, transformed, and expanded anew, incrementally leading to new networks and change; and (c) implicit memory, lacking symbolic content, is an underutilized component of psychoanalytic attention. Clinical examples are used as illustrations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
