Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis/Psychotherapy: Lecture Two, Part 4 " How the Mind Functions" What Memory is Like

Neuroscience has made a major contribution to psychoanalysis in understanding the various types of memory--especially declarative and  nondeclarative  memory. These memory systems were first postulated by Freud as conscious memory, preconscious memory, and unconscious memory.   Knowing  how these three levels of memory function, helps us understand how neuropsychoanalytic psychotherapy works. 

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.

Working with such conscious memories/predictions in neuropsychoanalytic therapy is fairly easy. The patient comes to treatment fully aware of their faulty prediction, but needs help in changing it to a workable one. The therapist works with the patient to help them come up with a more workable prediction, and then implement it. 

The next type of memories are found in our preconscious minds. These too 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. You can see pictures of the memory in your mind.You can visualize the memory. This is the common form memory takes and it is what we normally mean when we say, "Oh now I remember!" 

These preconscious memories  are also a part of neuropsychoanalytic psychotherapy. Sometimes the patient is suffering only from a faulty and  unworkable preconscious prediction, and working at that level is all that is needed. In other cases a patient may be suffering from both an unconscious prediction and a preconscious one, but for whatever reason work at this level is not possible.  In such a case we assist the patient in bringing only their preconscious prediction into consciousness.  . 

But there is a third type of memory that is unconscious. 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 essentially 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 or " Emotional Respondes". They are automatic habits and actions we take without thought or memory, like remembering how to crawl, walk and jump. 

Let's say at age four you had a wish to be rid of your Mom, and have your Daddy exclusively to yourself. What if you thought you wanted your Mother to go on a trip and never return. Yet, you also longed for your mother and panicked  when she was away from you?  What if such a conflict between your RAGE at your Mother and your need to remain  attached to her (PANIC/GRIEF), was unbearable and unresolvable at this age?  Then this entire memory (including its wishes, thoughts and fantasies ie.,  prediction/solution to your problem) of, " I will destroy Mom and take Dad for myself,"  would then be repressed into your nondeclarative, unconscious memory bank. This repressed  unconscious prediction would then be no longer available in its original episodic form. 

 But again, 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-- especially in your transference to your   significant others. It will also be repeated in your transference relationship with your therapists.

 In the example above of the faulty repressed prediction regarding conflicted thoughts/wishes about your mother, these same conflicted unconscious thoughts/feelings will be transferred to your partner, your close friends, and  your therapist. You may consciously try  not to repeat tbe faulty prediction that you cannot remember, but it will not work. 

 In neuropsychoanalytic therapy we explore these repeated patterns in the present with patients.Take for example a patient  who marries alcoholic after alcoholic, but 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 in always choosing alcoholic partners. 

 Now, we do not try and get the patient to remember the fantasies and wishes of this memory/prediction, because it is repressed and gone. Instead we deal with its  aftermath, the repeated pattern today in the patient's transference relationships with these alcoholic partners and their therapist. If in therapy we can help the patient see their faulty prediction that leads to this repeated pattern, understand where it comes from, and eventually change it in their present relationships to a workable one,  they will get well and no longer marry alcoholics.

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 when dealing with 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 predictions/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 its  role in how neuropsychoanalytic psychotherapy works.