ABSTRACT
It is difficult to date a historical interest in memory development. Clearly Freud was enamoured by the topic, as it lay at the route of his speculation that early life experiences have a profound and central role in many aspects of one’s day-to-day adult life (Freud, 1965). Indeed, many attribute to Freud the notion that we fail to remember the events that transpire during our first few years of life (the concept of infantile amnesia) because we repress these early memories. Although such speculation was then, and remains, without empirical support, this view of early memory continues to dominate some schools of psychoanalytic thought and psychotherapeutic practice (e.g. it is behind the movement to help patients “recover” early childhood memories). Further, it has weaved its way into some contemporary views of attachment theory (e.g. the concept of inner working models, whereby infants develop a mental representation of their attachment relationship with their primary caretaker; see Bowlby, 1969).
