Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis: Lecture Three Part 5 " How the Mind Functions" Memory

WHAT MEMORY IS LIKE..........Neuroscience has made a major contribution to psychoanalysis in understanding various types of memory. Only as we understand what memory is like are we able to understand how neuropsychoanalytic psychotherapy works. Freud and Modern Freudian analysts today understand the EGO to be divided into three parts: The conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. In our conscious minds we have short term memories. These are memories we are presently thinking of in going about our daily business. They might be something like, " I need to get my car washed today. And it is the Fourth of July tomorrow. I am grateful to be an American. My head hurts a little bit. Could I be hungry? etc." These are bits of experience that we are currently thinking about and remembering. They will not remain in our conscious mind very long unless they are important enough to be transferred down into long term memory to be stored for later use. It is not true that everything we have ever learned remains in our mind/brain. If it is not needed for future reference we just let it go. The next type of memories are found in our preconscious minds. These are long term memories. We needed to store them beyond the present moment to help us live our lives productively. They are not presently in our minds however. We have to concentrate to try and bring them back into our consciousness. For instance if I asked you what was the name of your first grade school teacher, you likely would not recall her name right off the bat, but if you thought about it for a while you could likely remember it. You could "declare" her name. We call this type of long term memory "declarative" or preconscious memory because you can actually remember it (Solms 2020.) You can picture your teacher in your mind. You can remember how she dressed or what she was like. You can recall things she said to you. Your memories take the form of scenes or movies or plays in your head. This is the common form memory takes and it is what we normally mean when we say, "Oh now I remember!" These type of memories, these preconscious memories/predictions are a major part of all psychotherapies, but are the primary focus in supportive psychotherapy. Suppose you come to therapy and you remember the time when you were twelve years old when your Mother spanked you too harshly, and you remember the scene and your angry feelings toward her for the mistreatment. Perhaps your twelve year old child mind was angry at her and this thought scared you or made you feel guilty, etc. But with some effort you can recall the event. This was not a conscious memory you carried around with you all the time. It was a preconscious memory of a longer term nature. With some help from the therapist and your own concentration you were able to recall this memory from childhood. It was not conscious. It was preconscious. It is not that you could not remember it-- that it was gone. You just did not want to remember it because it was painful to recall. So your mind stored it in your preconscious until that day in therapy you recalled it. You recalled both the thoughts and the feelings of this memory. Again, such preconscious memories/predictions are explored in all psychotherapies, but are the major exploration technique in supportive therapy. But there is a third part of the EGO that is called the unconscious mind. Here long term memories are no longer available in their usual form. You cannot recall them no matter how hard you try. Your therapist also cannot help you recall them. They are gone. They no longer exist as scenes, plays, or movies in your head. They have become so deeply embedded into your unconscious that they are no longer declarative. They are now Nondeclarative. They can no longer be declared. They have been rendered unconscious, and for all practical purposes they are gone-- barred from consciouness forever in long term, nondeclarative, unconscious memory. These memories are the "Repressed!" There is a big debate today about recalling repressed memories of abuse, etc. Modern neuroscience has learned that this is not possible. These memories are no longer available to the conscious mind-- at least not in the form of scenes in our heads. These memories have been transformed into " Procedural " memories. They are automatic habits and actions we take without thought or memory, like remembering how to ride a bike. These memories are now only  action patterns . These unconscious memories may also be in the form of emotional responses such that are experienced in cases of trauma. Let's go back to your Mother's harsh spanking and your wish to be rid of her. What if you were at your four year old Daddy's girl stage when this occurred? What if you were a little girl who also wanted her Daddy exclusively for herself? What if you thought you wanted your Mother gone? What if the guilt and fear that such a thought instilled in you was unbearable as well? Then this entire memory (including its wishes, thoughts and fantasies ie., its imagined prediction to your problem) of, " I will destroy Mom and take Dad for myself," overwhelmed your childhood ego's ability to process it. This prediction would then have become repressed into your nondeclarative, unconscious memory bank where the scene of her spanking and your thoughts about wanting her gone and having Dad for yourself etc., were no longer available. But what is available today is the procedural memory ie., the pattern or action program, or the emotional response. This action pattern gets repeated over and over in your life. You cannot remember it but you do repeat it. Say you notice in your life that every time you consider spanking your own daughter you cannot do it. You get anxious. You feel guilty. You feel you may hurt her. And you think that your husband might be pleased if you spanked her. You are trying not to repeat something that happened to you that you cannot remember. And you will never remember it. You cannot remember it. It is no longer there except as a procedural pattern or an emotional response. But you do repeat it.( See Freud on Remembering vs Repeating.) In neuropsychoanalytic therapy we explore these repeated patterns in the present with patients. Patients still feel the feelings around these memories but they cannot remember the predictions that led to them. They feel the uncomfortable feelings involved in the repetition but they cannot remember the cognitive content associated with the feelings. Take for example someone who marries alchoholics over and over and they do not know why. They know that it is not good for them but they keep repeating the pattern. As neuropsychoanalytic therapists we can be sure that this patient is repeating an unconscious repressed prediction that they are not aware of. We do not try and get them to remember the fantasies and wishes of  this memory/prediction (think attachment figure) because it is repressed and gone. Instead we deal with it's aftermath, the repeated pattern today in their relationships with others and their therapist. If in therapy we can help the patient see this repeated pattern, understand where it comes from, and eventually change it in their present relationships, they will get well and no longer marry alchoholics. This is why neuropsychoanalytic therapy is so necessary when it comes to deep seated and blindly repeated patterns that are all we have to work with from unconscious, and non declarative, repressed predictions. But the good news is such treatment can be done and such patterns can be changed in the present, in the here and now of life. New solutions can be implemented alongside the old ones that have not worked (Solms 2020.) Modern neuroscience has helped psychoanalysis understand this and much more about the nature of memory and it's role in how neuropsychoanalytic psychotherapy works.