The Odyssey of Memory
Publisher
:
La Découverte
Parution date
:
EAN
:
9782359250060
Number of pages
:
276
Description
Memory is central to human life—and yet there are fundamental questions about it that we seldom consider. In An Odyssey in Memory, Christine Bergé combines anthropology, mythology, philosophy, psychology, and the sciences; she cites well-known authors to illuminate one of our most mysterious abilities and allow us to see how memory lets us construct our identity.
How do we learn how to remember? How do we develop our essential memory, including our tactile memory of everyday motions and actions, gestures as basic as walking or lacing up our shoes? We are unaware of how our memory works and so we consider it a natural part of ourselves, arriving full-blown at or soon after our birth. Christine Bergé, however, thinks memory should be seen as nurture and not nature; not as a territory we occupy, but as one that we conquer.
In the first part of this eye-opening book, the author explains how, from the earliest times, the working process of memory has followed existing technologies: from argil tablets to painting, and then library systems, the telegraph, telephone, and computer. She describes the special and necessary relationship between memory and time, and notes how the two work together in most people but not for those who have a different relationship with time and memory.
In the last two parts of the book, the author presents neuroscientific discoveries about DNA, biological and technical construction, and the working process of the brain. She also puts forth the idea that our memories need help from the presence of others to exist and to be kept alive. Several illnesses that affect memory, such as Alzheimer’s disease, remind us that even our earliest abilities can be lost.
A surprising and unique book, a mix of science, culture, and psychology, An Odyssey in Memory shows how in the last decades, as data storage technologies have progressed, the training of our memory has been neglected and our ability to remember has declined.
Author
Christine Bergé :
Christine Bergé is a researcher in anthropology and professor of philosophy at the Université Lumière (Lyon II). She also works in cooperation with the psychoanalysis and social science research department of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris (Universités de Picardie and Paris VII). Her work is oriented toward the links between technology and therapy, in France and in the United States. She has previously published Héros de la guérison: Thérapies alternatives aux États-Unis (Les empêcheurs de penser en rond, 2005).
|