ABSTRACT
Defects of memory are usually so spectacular as to attract much attention. Memory as conceived involves reinstatement with sufficient degree of detail to bring about recognition that is relatively definite and correct placement in the individual’s past. Experimental studies of memory have long shown the inaccuracies appearing in testimony given by the most honest and capable observers. Discussions of amnesia long included a consideration of the aphasias, on the supposition that aphasia was a disturbance of memory involving language only. The old diagrams showing the cortical localizations for motor speech, visual speech, auditory speech, written speech, were invoked and a list of aphasias corresponding to what were supposed to be the effects of lesions in those locations was presented. Phantasies, constructions of day dreaming and nocturnal dreaming, hold an increasingly important place in the interpretations of many forms of abnormal and borderline phenomena; and they are increasingly recognized for their influence upon the lives of even normally minded people.
