Book Review: Memory and the Self: Phenomenology, Science and Autobiography

Frontiers in Psychology

Kourken Michaelian¹ 

关键词: memory;    self;    episodic memory;    philosophy of memory;    embodied cognition;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00177

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The primary aim of this ambitious book is to argue for the existence of a hitherto-overlooked form of memory. “Rilkean memory” (so called after the poet Rilke) is, according to Rowlands, “a type of involuntary autobiographical memory that is not Freudian, neither implicit nor explicit, neither procedural nor declarative and neither episodic nor semantic” (67). Chapter 1 begins by introducing the topic of the presence of self in episodic memory. Distinguishing between the act of remembering and the remembered content, Rowlands suggests that the act of remembering may sometimes outlive the remembered content, persisting in a “new, mutated form” (12); this is Rilkean memory. Ultimately, he will argue, the persistence of one's memories in this form compensates for the limitations of the content provided by episodic memory and thus plays an important role in underwriting the continuity of the self.

【 授权许可】

CC BY