ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the vicissitudes of screen memories in the analytic situation. It argues that the working-through process of analysis allows the analyst objectively and the analysand subjectively to become aware of shifts of emphasis in the reconstruction of the analysand’s life history. Screen memories may have a special place in reconstructive work. Sigmund Freud introduced the concept of screen memories in 1899. He was fascinated by the idea that such memories of childhood seemed to be concoctions as opposed to exact historical records of the events. Interest in screen memories other than Freud’s has been less enthusiastic than one might have imagined. A useful heuristic phenomenon becomes screened by such ecumenical thinking. It was again Greenacre who brought a developmental point of view to the study of screen memories. It is interesting to consider what it is about the nature of screen memories that may afford them a unique role as criteria of termination.
