ABSTRACT
Today it is known that utility enjoys a dominant, and perhaps determining, role in the selection of events retained in autobiographical memory. If we peruse a selection of vivid memories reported from a client’s autobiographical memory, and we are likely to say something like, “I can see how my client might remember this.” The billion dollar question is how that memory specifically was selected. If we knew the answer, we might understand, by reverse-engineering the memories retained, how the mind operated and how the personality was organized. Previously, no one had been able to describe that process. In this chapter I describe the tools and techniques used to construct the perceptual apparatus that screens events in real time. These events are either eliminated for long-term retention or retained if consistent with existing memories. Among those tools, techniques, and methods of analysis are the précis of the clearest/most negative affect memory, the role that positive affect memories play in autobiographical memory, and the context that is most upsetting and how that information can be used constructively in working with the client.
