A screen memory is a distorted memory, generally of a visual rather than verbal nature, deriving from childhood. The term was coined by
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
, and the concept was the subject of his 1899 paper "Screen Memories".
Childhood origins
Freud was struck by the presence, in himself and in other adults, of vivid but bland memories standing from early childhood; and he came to believe that their strength and their preservation both derived from their association with other, less innocent infantile occurrences. As he concluded in his 1899 paper, "the falsified memory is the first that we become aware
of: the raw material of memory-traces out of which it was forged remains
unknown to us in its original form."
Later writers have emphasised the element of
psychological trauma underpinning the screen memory, as well as the way it can encapsulate in miniature the
core conflicts of childhood.
Denial and memory construction
The construction of the screen memory turns on the balance between memory and
denial
Denial, in ordinary English usage, has at least three meanings: asserting that any particular statement or allegation is not true (which might be accurate or inaccurate); the refusal of a request; and asserting that a true statement is not true. ...
. The blocking of an unpleasant event, thought or perception is facilitated if some harmless, but associated object can be substituted for the unpleasantness itself. The ego searches for memories that can serve as "screens" for the unpleasantness behind, which is thereby removed from consciousness.
Related applications
*Freud considered
sexual fetishism as cognate to screen memories, the fetish serving as a screen for infantile sexual strivings.
*Screen memories may also serve as a source for artistic creation – a process that has been followed for example with respect to
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
.
[G S Reed ed., ''On Freud's 'Screen Memories' '' (2014) p. 42]
See also
References
{{Reflist, 2}
Further reading
* Edward Glover, "The Screening Function of Traumatic Memories". ''International Journal of Psychoanalysis'' X (1929).
* Barbara Misztal, ''Theories of Social Remembering'' (Maidenhead 2003).
External links
Screen Memories
Defence mechanisms
Psychological concepts
Psychoanalytic terminology
Freudian psychology