ABSTRACT
Most contemporary cognitive science models differentiate between two, at times three, memory systems. The model that differentiates between two domains of learning and memory, the implicit/nondeclarative and explicit/declarative systems has recently received considerable focus in psychoanalysis with significant implications for therapeutic change. The convergence of implicit learning, neural memory networks, and patterns of organization offers further validation of these concepts across different fields of discourse. This chapter explores how implicit/non-declarative and explicit/declarative systems encode information, how encoding affects conscious accessibility of implicit processing, and the implications of encoding and conscious accessibility in delineating a theory of multiple pathways for therapeutic action. The Boston Change Process Group posits an altogether different form of encoding, the presymbolic format, to be primary for the implicit memory system in contrast to the verbal symbolic format of the explicit system. They argue that these memory systems, therefore, require different change processes in the psychoanalytic arena.
