ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a section on the concept of experience and its temporal dimensions. It sums up these considerations in a concept of generalizations. The chapter deals with the levels of social memories that are the body, mind, situation, and transsituational fields of order. It develops the form of meaning, in which the processing of generalizations takes place. An initial and unrefined investigation shows at least two different modes of information processing, that is the parallel and the sequential. Thus, by shifting the focus of analysis to the forms, in which the past is processed, the distinction between the individual and collective memory collapses, because these forms are processed and archived across the borders. By relying on generalizations and meaning as the basic concepts of memory research, these mnemonic structures and processes will become clearer. Generalizations are the forms in which the past is preserved for the possible futures.
