Marking the Mind
A History of Memory

An elegantly written, challenging exposé on the history of memory by one of the most influential historians of psychology.

Kurt Danziger (Author)

9780521726412, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 September 2008

320 pages
24.7 x 17.4 x 1.9 cm, 0.63 kg

'The book Marking the Mind: A History of Memory, provides a very interesting, readable , and concise account of how our conceptions of memory have developed over the ages. … While reading this book, one readily discovers how the development of psychology as an empirical science has resulted in separating the study of memory from any relationship to context or meaning. … this book has many implications for contemporary neuropsychological practice … the reader is often led to think creatively about the implications of what they are reading in this book. … challenging the dogma of many of our current approaches to this phenomenon. I recommend this book for those neuropsychologists who wish to proceed beyond the daily rigors of report writing and/or grant preparation and gain more of an understanding of the historical and theoretical origins of our work.' Journal of International Neuropsychological Society

Memory is one of the few psychological concepts with a truly ancient lineage. Presenting a history of the interrelated changes in memory tasks, memory technology and ideas about memory from antiquity to the late twentieth century, this book confronts psychology's 'short present' with its 'long past'. Kurt Danziger, one of the most influential historians of psychology of recent times, traces long-term continuities from ancient mnemonics and tools of inscription to modern memory experiments and computer storage. He explores historical discontinuities, showing how different kinds of memory became prominent at different times, and examines these changes in the context of specific themes including the question of truth in memory, distinctions between kinds of memory, the project of memory experimentation and the physical localization and conceptual location of memory. Daniziger's unique approach provides a historical perspective for understanding varieties of reproduction, narratives of the self and short-term memory.

1. Does memory have a history?
2. The rule of metaphor
3. The cultivation of memory
4. Privileged knowledge
5. An experimental science of memory
6. Memory kinds
7. Truth in memory
8. A place for memory
9. Memory in its place.

Subject Areas: Memory [JMRM], Psychology [JM], History of ideas [JFCX]