How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
195/400
- Publication/creation
- London : George Routledge, 1932.
- Physical description
- xiv, 374 pages ; 22 cm
- Contributors
- Wolfe, W. Béran 1900-1935.
- Notes
-
This edition was reprinted in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946 and 1948.
Copy 1 Note: 1937 reprint. X158203
- Attribution and usage
-
Wellcome Collection
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The image contains the following text:
Fhe Function of Memory
To discuss all these tools in detail lies beyond the scope
of this study, but it will repay us to know something of
memory and its relation to the training formula. The
average man believes that memory is a vague hereditary
faculty which is valuable to those who happen to possess it
and a loss to those who have never developed it. Some
scientists believe that memory can be trained in much
the same way a muscle can be trained, and to some extent
this is true. Yet none of these views helps us to under¬
stand the function of memory. Why is it that we
remember trivial incidents of our childhood and forget
major happenings of our adult lives ? Why is it that some
people have a vivid and retentive memory of the earliest
days of their childhood, and yet are incapable of
remembering anything they learned at school ? Why
is it that we sometimes forget the name of an intimate
friend, or the address of an important business acquaint¬
ance, and yet recall the colour of a tie we wore on Easter
Sunday five years ago ?
These are the important facts about memory : the
overwhelming majority of the myriad experiences that
make up a lifetime are forgotten. IVhat we remember
must, therefore, be very important for our training 'pattern.
Psychological investigation indicates that our earliest
childhood memories when properly interpreted are found
to contain the complete key to our lives.. In my
psychiatric practice I often ask a patient for his earliest
childhood recollection, his most painful experiences of
childhood, and his happiest childhood experiences. These
three sets of recollections usually give me a picture of
what the patient thought of himself and his childhood
situation. The earliest childhood recollection epitomizes
our first discovery of our own ego, and its relation to the
environment at the time when we were first able to
understand or feel that relationship. The most unpleasant
recollections show how and where our pattern was
thwarted, and therefore give a clear picture of the