In psychology, we can consider memories as psychic facts, forming baggage that, for the most part, is unconscious.
By Roberto Assagioli, undated, from the Assagioli Archive in Florence. (Docs. #23134 and 23135)[1] Original Title: Come si educa la memoria. Translated and Edited With Notes by Jan Kuniholm
Memory is a fundamental property of organic matter; that is, of the substance of every living being. Every sensation and every impression changes that living substance, leaves an indelible trace in it, and disposes it to react in a given way. This explains many biological and psychological facts; for example, immunization and anaphylaxis can be considered in a sense as facts of “organic memory.”
Habits — so important in our lives, often useful and even necessary, but sometimes insidious and harmful — are a form of memory. A habit can be regarded as a mnemonic trace, which has become — as a result of numerous repetitions — so wide and so deep that it constitutes a channel through which nervous and psychic energies flow easily.
The importance of organic memory was especially emphasized by Semon[2] with his mneme theory,[3] which was later taken up and developed by Porel and our own Rignano.[4]
But mnemonic traces, memories, are not always present to our consciousness; they are usually located outside it. Where? What is their location? In the organic brain substance? Or in some area of our psyche of which we have no direct awareness? This raises the arduous question of the relations between psyche and body, between spirit and matter: but this is not the place to discuss that subject now.
In psychology and for practical purposes we can consider memories as psychic facts which, as such, must be part of our psychological being, of our personality, forming baggage that for the most part is unconscious. Thus, it can be said that mnemonic impressions, memories, are stored in the unconscious and from there they surface into consciousness when we recall them.
In the function of memory, considered as a whole, four stages must be distinguished:
- The impression produced by a stimulus, that is, the formation of the “mnemonic trace.”
- Its assimilation into the unconscious. Formation of correlations, of associations with other psychic facts.
- Its evocation.
- Its recognition and localization in time. {Memory implies not only reenactment, but recognition, i.e. identification of the casual image or idea with the inner one and thus “localization” in time — and this in turn implies the idea of time, the personal idea and the permanence of the self (“I”)}.
For the sake of educating memory well, we must attend especially to the first three of these stages.
I. IMPRESSION
The analogy with photography can help us better understand what the conditions are for having a sharp, deep and lasting trace. To obtain a sharp, vigorous negative[5] requires:
- That the image to be reproduced is well focused.
- That it is well lit.
- That the exposure is sufficiently long in relation to the light; the dimmer the light, the longer the exposure must be.
For example, while an object illuminated by the sun can be photographed by a good camera with the exposure of only a thousandth of a second, to obtain a photographic image of a star it is necessary to keep the plate exposed to its faint ray for a few hours.[6] The same is true for memory. Light corresponds to the intensity of emotions and vital interest connected with the object or fact before us. Thus a scene that touches us, that moves us deeply (e.g., in which danger threatens us or a loved one) is indelibly imprinted with all its details in our minds, even if it took place in a lightning-fast manner. In contrast, to imprint in us theoretical notions which are cold and uninteresting in themselves, it is necessary to pay attention to them for quite a long time, and often to repeat the exposure several times.
Here, then, is a first set of practical rules. To remember well facts that do not present a vivid and spontaneous interest to us, it is necessary:
- That we observe them well, concentrating our attention on them, so that we have a well-defined and complete picture of them. This corresponds to the “focus” of the mind. Instead we usually observe little and poorly, and we also miss important elements.
{Examples: Experiences of Clapared[7] and others; a window! or Agassiz[8]}
- That we prolong that observation for as long as necessary. This corresponds to the exposure of the sensitive plate of our psyche, our plastic unconscious.
This prolonged concentration and observation requires an act of will. It is therefore necessary to possess a sufficiently strong will. On the other hand, this effort and mental training in turn constitute good exercises of the will, and thus help to strengthen it.
- When the object is too large or complex, and one does not possess sufficient power of concentration, as in the case of children in whom voluntary attention is very weak, one can conveniently substitute repeated observation for prolonged observation.
The effectiveness of repetition is immense, so we should not hesitate to use it tirelessly when intense, profound and lasting results are desired. Let it not be thought that repetition — when done properly — is unwelcome or unpleasant. We are shown this by children, who demand that they be told their favorite fairy tales again and again.
When left free in learning, they then joyfully repeat the same act or exercise dozens of times. Such an observation made by Montessori[9] formed the starting point of her method. Other desired and welcome repetitions are the refrains of songs and the repetition, even insistent repetition, of motifs in musical pieces (e.g., Ravel’s Bolero).
The efficacy of repetitions is well illustrated by the fact that Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo (Latin: “the drop hollows out the stone not by force, but by falling often”) — {and actual fact}.
The Buddha, well aware of this efficacy, used the method of repetition in his discourses to an extent that may seem excessive to us, but it certainly had a powerful persuasive effect on his listeners, as the success of his preaching, which brought him thousands of disciples and followers, has shown.
Especially in modern life — in which so many impressions overlap — we must tirelessly repeat what we want to penetrate and impress upon ourselves and others. But for repetition to succeed more effectively, it is good to repeat in a “living” way, not a cold and mechanical way.
Therefore, do not always repeat literally, but make variations on the same theme (like Beethoven). Repeat with new connections. Repeat at cyclic intervals. {Use the art of contrast}.
- Memory and physical state. To remember well it is necessary that the impression be made when the nervous system and psyche are rested and “fresh.” Therefore frequent, even very short rests are recommended. Prof. Watt in his booklet The Economy and Training of Memory[10] (which contains good data but is very incomplete) says that breaks of even a few seconds are useful. During the short pauses it is also useful to do some gymnastic movements and some deep breathing in front of an open window.
- A very effective method is to study in the evening last before falling asleep. It is based on other laws of psychic life:
1) Emergence of the unconscious and its great permeability in the state before sleep.
2) [There needs to be] an absence of other impressions and interests.
Teaching experiments have been done even during sleep. Those done by the West Point Military Academy seem to have given excellent results. They should be repeated.[11]
- As we have mentioned, it is necessary to “highlight” what one wants to remember and to have remembered. Therefore, one must arouse vital interest; evoke emotions based on the most vivid instincts, passions and feelings; strike the imagination. Awaken curiosity, combative and competitive instincts, self-love. Promote competitions even with oneself, incite record-breaking, offer prizes, etc.
- Also make use of comedy, humor, aesthetic sense (fascination with beauty), rhythm (see Chemistry in Verse by A. Cavaliere)[12].
- Imitation. Unconscious suggestion of the environment. Living where one does what one wants to learn. This is especially true for language learning (see: A Psychological Method for Learning Languages[13])
- Everything that hinders the formation of “impressions” should be eliminated as much as possible. Chief among these obstacles are:
1) More vivid, concomitant and immediately following impressions.
2) Unpleasant states of mind:
- dislike for the subject
- dislike for the teacher
- boredom (in this the usual school methods seriously fail).
- {Premature reenactment (learn well before reenacting).}
- {Allow time for impression and assimilation.}
- {Emotional obstacles; subconscious complexes.}
- {Emotional contrariness – repression of distressing memories (self-defence).}
- {Dissociation — Depression — from exhaustion from emotional causes, sometimes to the point of splitting. — Psychic treatment needed is Psychosynthesis}
- dislike for the teacher
II. ASSIMILATION – CONNECTION – ASSOCIATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF NOTIONS
Perception of various orders: visual – auditory – motor.
[We] prefer those corresponding to our type,[14] but not exclusively (this point is well developed by William James in On Some of Life’s Ideals, p. 206).[15]In self-study, there is a procedure I can recommend from experience: study the same subject in two or three different texts; the differences help to imprint and connect.
Also: read aloud — hear it expounded and read by others — mark in writing (notes); expound verbally.
Teaching others to learn is most effective.
DOING AND PERFORMING. Importance of motor “images,” muscular sensations. It is appropriate to “embody” ideas and notions, and to avoid abstractions, intellectualism and exclusively “bookish” culture.
{Aids to re-enactment: Stimuli.
a. Physical coffee! but don’t take it out of habit! . . . (Rewards for self-mastery, for intellectual creation )}
The methods of mnemonics are based the on the creation of particular “associative links.” One of the most widely used is to replace the numbers one wishes to remember with letters, according to a certain “order,” and then with these dates to form words that link what the dates refer to. For example: in a given “code,” zero (0)corresponds to “S” and nine (9) to “P”; this is to recall that C. Darwin was born in 1809; with letters corresponding to the last two digits of the date, the word species is formed, recalling C. Darwin, author of The Origin of SPecies.
Another tool is to form acrostics. For example:
Mar-ma-lu-ott: to recall the months in which the Ides are shifted in the Roman calendar.[16] Aepi: indicating the arrangement of the cruciate ligaments of the knee joint (the anterior is external, the posterior is internal). The well-known verse “ma con gran pena le reca giù” which helps to remember the names and sequence of the Alps: Maritime – Cottian – Graian – Pennine – Lepontine – Rhaetian – Carnic – Giolie [Julian in English]. [17]
These methods are mainly for remembering dates, nomenclatures and other dry things, and have unlimited applications. Those who wish to learn about them can consult Plebani’s L’arte della Memoria.[18]
[III. EVOCATION – The original essay did not contain this heading; however portions of the paragraphs below, from Doc. #23134, pertain to the third stage listed above —Ed.]
APPENDIX 1: MUSIC {from Doc. #23134}
The Mnemonic efficacy of music in making the subconscious surface:
“For me music particularly arouses my capricious and riotous memory; quite tenacious, but nothing ready, often subject to most annoying absences and eclipses. Well, more than once music has helped me suddenly find the hiding place of some rebellious and fugitive reminiscence, among other things. One day, several years ago, hearing a Neapolitan arrietta poorly played on the mandolin by some neighbor made me reconstruct in a few minutes the whole plot of a manuscript I had lost for years, and revive in a few finished pages the exact words, which I had previously made a vain and distant attempt to reconstruct.”[19]
APPENDIX 2: PHASES OF MEMORY {from Doc. #23134}
Connections – associations.
Assimilations
(Coordination and arrangement of data)
Law : The more manifold and varied are the associative connections of the impression, the more and easily recallable is the memory of it.
Read! read aloud — also hear it expounded and read by others — make notes; expound verbally.
Teaching others to learn is most effective. obligation, commitment, desire to do well . . . therefore study with others.
APPENDIX 3: AMNESIA {from Doc. #23134}
Amnesia is due to the associations of various kinds that exist between the forgotten word or thing and a painful state of “emotional repression.”
Once in a conversation Freud flatly denied the existence of an inn very close to the place where he had visited no less than seven times during the summer. This extraordinary tug of his memory had been played by the “professional emotional complex.” In fact, the tavern was called “der Kochwartner,” a name very similar to that of the Vienna neuropathologist Frankl-Hchwart, who was not precisely an admirer of Freud.
— from “The Psychology of the Subconscious,”
Dr. Roberto Assagioli, in the Journal Psyche, Year 1, 1912, p.118.
APPENDIX 4: SPIRITUAL MEMORY AND FORGETTING {from Doc. #23134}
Gratitude is a form of spiritual memory — Remembering the good received and being grateful for it.
Forgiveness is a form, indeed the fullest form, of spiritual forgetting — Forgiving erases, “forgets” forever the evil received. Importance of this — the liberating power of forgiveness.
- Nietzsche had already expressed this principle in one of his incisive sayings, “I have done that,” says my memory — “I cannot have done that,” says my pride — and it remains inexorable. Eventually memory yields. (Beyond Good and Evil, IV. Hamtstack, No. 68).
- Worry, fear of not remembering — Have faith in one’s memory! Leave it to the subconscious mind! (Watt op.cit. p.83)
- “Subjection” – shyness. Cure: Suggestion — Acting in [one’s] imagination.
- Physical and psychic fatigue [increase forgetfulness] — so go to the task rested.
A day of leisure while waiting for the exam: seclude yourself — quietly read a few notes, or a humorous newspaper or book.
APPENDIX 5: METAPSYCHIC MEMORY {from Doc. #23134}
- Hypermnesia[20] (chess players, etc.)
- Memories of experiences made outside the body.
- Memory regression experiments of de Rochas.[21]
Value:
- Demonstration of reincarnation
- Understanding of one’s own fate.
Inconvenience : Oppression etc.
APPENDIX 6: SPIRITUAL MEMORY – SUPERCONSCIOUS {from Doc. #23134}
Inspirational Intuitions — Easy, curious forgetfulness of them. Guard them carefully; recall them.
Recollection of moral and spiritual purposes.
We forget them through reluctance and hostility of the subconscious that does not want to be disciplined! Remember that we are truly Souls, Spiritual Beings — Children of God “made in His image and likeness.” But even the sincere practitioner, the spiritualist who is fully convinced, continually forgets this in practice. Let us sincerely and humbly confess our inconsistency. It is obvious, after all — If we always remembered that we are Souls, we would behave quite differently. There are excuses or at least extenuating circumstances: overlapping impressions and memories — powerful suggestions from the environment, of modern life turned toward externals . . . . Therefore, it is necessary to provide [ourselves] with exercises for recollection, of meditation — contemplation.
Let us recollect ourselves; forget our little daily self, forget the world, by letting the Light of the Spirit permeate us — we enter into communion with God. Then we already remember, having assimilated, to remember well, not only intellectually, but with our whole soul, to live [our selves], to embody [our selves]. [words crossed out here in original manuscript]
Immense value, not only for us, but also for others.
To remember our spiritual experiences in this way is to cooperate effectively with the burning aspiration of all men of faith and good will: to renew the world, to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth.
[1] This document is a “synthetic” essay combining aspects of both Doc. #23134 and Doc. #23135 from the Assagioli Archives. For the most part we have followed #23135 (probably the transcript of Assagioli’s lecture at the Istituto di psicosintesi), but we have also added portions of #23134 (which is probably lecture notes for a different audience), inserted in the text and shown {in brackets} and at the end in the Appendices.—Tr.
[2] Richard Wolfgang Semon (1859-1918), German zoologist, explorer, evolutionary biologist and memory researcher, coined the terms engram and ecphory. his book Die Mneme was published in 1904, and the English edition appeared as The Mneme in 1924. —Tr.
[3] This is a correction of the later Assagioli paper, which gave “meme theory” here. Semon’s theory is called “mneme” theory, following the title and subject of his book, and also since the use of the term “meme” was coined in English in 1976 by Richard Dawkins. The earliest version of Assagioli’s paper used the correct term, “mneme theory.”—Tr.
[4] Eugenio Rignano (1870-1931), Italian philosopher, biologist, and philosopher, editor of the journal Scientia.—Tr.
[5] This term refers to the use of negatives and positive prints in film photography, which was the prevalent technology before the advent of the current digital photography. —Ed.
[6] This comment assumes a technology that has been surpassed since it was written, but the principle is unchanged. —Ed.
[7] Édouard Claparède (1873-1940) was a Swiss neurologist, child psychologist, and educator. He performed an influential experiment demonstrating how the trauma of a painful event could be retained even if short term memory was lost.—Tr.
[8] Assagioli first told the story of Harvard Professor Agassiz and his student in his 1933 lecture titled “The Development of Deficient Faculties” [Sviluppo delle Facoltà Carenti in Italian]. The anecdote concerned powers of attention and recall. At first the student could only see “a fish;” but after the results of many hours of observations he thought he saw a lot more, but this was rejected by Professor Agassiz as “not right.” The student then studied the specimen ten hours a day for an entire week, and was then able to see an “astonishing” amount of detail. A first-person account by the student (Nathaniel Shaler, who eventually became a dean at Harvard) was published in his autobiography, and can be found at https://www.phy.ilstu.edu/pte/209content/agassiz.html —Tr.
[9] Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name; Assagioli knew her personally and promoted her method in his lectures and writings. —Tr.
[10] first published in 1909 by Henry J. Watt (1879-1925) Scottish experimental psychologist. —Tr.
[11] This editor has been unable to find available references for these experiments. —Ed.
[12] (Chimica in Versi by Alberto Cavaliere) A witty yet comprehensive and scientifically impeccable mnemonic handbook for learning the fundamentals of organic and inorganic chemistry, first published in 1935 and four subsequent edition. —Tr.
[13] Pamphlet by Assagioli published by the Psychosynthesis Research Foundation.—Tr.
[14] Assagioli may here be referring to human types, as developed in his pamphlet Psychosynthesis Typology. —Ed.
[15] Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students On Some of Life’s Ideals, Henry Holt, 1899 (page number refers to the Italian translation). —Tr.
[16] The Ides indicates the 15th day of March, May, July, or October or the 13th day of any other month in the ancient Roman calendar. The acronym Mar-ma-lu-ott consists of the first letters of each of those months in Italian.—Tr.
[17] The rhyming phrase is literally translated into English as “but with great pain he brings them down,” but the acrostic is lost in English. This helps the Italian student to recall the Italian Alpine chain from France along Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia.—Tr.
[18] Benedetto Plebani, L’arte della memoria, 1912, Milan, ed. Hoepli. To my knowledge there is no English edition. —Ed.
[19] The manuscript suggests that a citation was intended here, but none was found. —Tr.
[20] Refers to unusual power or enhancement of memory.—Ed.
[21] Eugene Auguste Albert de Rochas d’Aiglun (1837-1914), author of Successive Lives, Unknown Forces, and other works published over 30 years, was a French parapsychologist, historian, translator, writer, military engineer and administrator known for extensive parapsychological research and writing. He conducted extensive experiments in which some subjects recalled past or future lives. —Ed..
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