ABSTRACT
S. Freud’s essay on screen memories is a milestone in the development of psychoanalytic thought and contains the seeds of a number of concepts that lie at the root of analytic theory. This chapter attempts to connect Freud’s intuitions on screen memories with some of the approaches to clinical analysis that have evolved in recent decades and can, be applied in the therapy of patients with severe pathology. It focuses on memory of the past and on the therapeutic importance of reconstructing the patient’s personal history. Personal memories are deceptive because memory is not a faithful transcription of what happened, but is subject to continuous revision. The 1899 essay addresses two factors that were to assume fundamental importance in psychoanalytic thought—namely, memory and infancy. In the neuroscientific approach, working memory is distinguished from long-term memory. An example of declarative memory is remembering the place where one married.
