Psychosomatics 39:68-71, February 1998
© 1998 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medine
Childhood "Screen Memories"
Are They Forgotten?
Milton Rosenbaum, M.D.
Received February 25, 1997; accepted April 23, 1997. From the Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico Medical School, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Address reprint requests to Dr. Rosenbaum, University of New Mexico Medical School, 2400 Tucker NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131.
ABSTRACT
In the past few years, much has been written on childhood sexual abuse. However, there is an absence of any mention of screen memories. Freud introduced the term "screen memory" in 1899. He repeatedly returned to the subject of childhood memories and concluded all childhood memories are "screen memories" and as such, "show us our earliest years not as they were but as they appeared in later years when the memories were recovered." Childhood memories are important in what they reveal and what they hide, and most important is the affect, not the event.
Key Words: Perspective • Children and Adolescents • Repressed Memories • Screen Memories • Child Abuse • Sexual Abuse • Freud, Sigmund
In the past few years, there have been a flood of articles and presentations in both medical and nonmedical settings on early childhood memories, especially related to sexual abuse and the general veracity of this material. What struck me was the absence of any mention of the concept of "screen memories" in this material. I noted this because of my long-standing interest in early childhood memories and screen memories.
The issue of early childhood memories, especially those of sexual abuse, are important to consultation-liaison psychiatrists because of the possible significance of these memories in the etiology of dissociation, conversion, and somatoform disorders and more recently in the differential diagnosis of psychogenic and epileptic seizures. Perhaps the most important significance of the controversy about the veracity of early childhood memories to consultation-liaison psychiatry is that this debate over their veracity may stimulate and/or re-awaken our interest in psychodynamic factors and thereby focus our attention on the role of early life experiences as possible etiological and/or contributing factors in the onset and course of a variety of diseases, especially in illness behavior.
To gather some data, I did a MEDLINE search that revealed that the number of articles on childhood sexual abuse skyrocketed from 11 in 1966–1975 to 944 in 1990–1994, and the number of articles on early childhood memories went from 6 in 1985–1989 to 18 in 1990–1994. By contrast, the total number of articles with "screen memory" in the title were 3 in 1990–1994 and only 8 in the years 1966–1994. Furthermore, all of these articles, with the exception of one, were published in psychoanalytic journals.
The term "screen memory" was introduced by Sigmund Freud in 18991 in an article entitled "Screen Memories"; elaborated in another article published in 1901 entitled "Childhood Memories and Screen Memories" and further elaborated in 1904, 1907, 1910, 1920, and 1924. Freud returned repeatedly to the subject of childhood memories. In the 1899 paper, he described the screen memory as an early memory that was rediscovered to serve as a "screen" against conflicts arising in the adolescent period. However, in his 1901 paper he stated that the screen memory conceals conflicts arising at the time or before the time the memory is formed.1, 2 In 1901, Freud stated, "of the childhood memories that have been retained a few strike us as perfectly understandable while others seem odd or unintelligible. If the memories that a person has retained are subjected to an analytic inquiry, it is easy to establish that there is no guarantee of accuracy. Some of the mnemonic images are certainly falsified, incomplete, or displaced in time and place. Any such statement by the subjects of the inquiry as that their first recollection comes from about their second year is clearly not to be trusted." (Freud, as most authors today, thought childhood verbal memories could not occur before the age of 2.5 to 3 years.) "It may indeed be questioned whether we have any memories at all from our childhood; memories relating to our childhood may be all that we possess. Our childhood memories show us our earliest years not as they were but as they appeared in the later years when the memories were recovered."2
In commenting on childhood memories, Freud concluded "one is faced by various considerations to suspect that in the so-called earliest childhood memories we possess not the genuine memory trace but a later revision of it, a revision that may have been subject to the influence of a variety of later psychic forces. Thus, the `childhood memories' of individuals come in general to acquire the significance of `screen memories' and in doing so offer a remarkable analogy with the childhood memories that a nation preserves in its store of legends and myths."2
Writers seem to know this. One of Freud's heros, the German poet, Goethe, is quoted as stating "the account of any life is bound to be a mixture of fact and imagination."3 Recently, another writer in a book review in THE NEW YORK TIMES stated, "and it is one of the several fascinations of this book that we are conscious as we read of the narrow line between facts of experience and memory and facts of imagination—all of which are much more intimately connected than is generally supposed."4 The writer and well-known analyst Peter Blos expressed his view on memory in his poem "Unicorn Park." A character asks "Is memory not the trusted archivist of all events that marked your life." The reply is "No, no, it was not/as memory tells you/it was more or it was less/than memory knows/memory is what lies/between what happened/and what was remembered."5
For my entire professional life, I have been interested as a clinician in early childhood memories: my own, those of friends and colleagues, and those of the hundreds of patients interviewed in clinical conferences. This interest led to a publication with a group of residents in Cincinnati in the 1953 article "The Value of Early Memories in Psychotherapy"6 and to a series of systematic studies on early memories by a group of residents and colleagues at the Einstein College of Medicine spearheaded by Robert Lang in the 1960s.7–9
In 1953, I believe we hedged in stating that early childhood memories range from true and factual experiences to complete fantasy.3 Lang et al. concluded that all childhood memories function as screens.7 Keeping in mind that it is always risky to use such terms as "always," "never," and "truth" in medicine and science in general and that our memories are not stored on computer discs but are biological, labile, and dynamic, I believe that childhood memories and screen memories are the same and as such are a mixture of fact, imagination, fantasy, conflictual wishes, and experiences. It is just common sense to note that out of the myriads of experiences of childhood that the relatively few retained as early memories indicate they play a pivotal role in each person's life story, the importance being in both what they reveal and what they hide. What is most important in what is revealed or hidden is the affect and not the event.
An example is the account of an early childhood memory of a woman in her late forties, a successful, practicing clinical psychologist. "For many years I have had a disturbing memory that I thought took place when I was five years old. In the memory, my mother, three-year-old sister, and I had gone clamming, walking on the sandbars behind our house in Provincetown, Massachusetts, at low tide. Since my mother didn't notice that the tide was coming in, in time for us to walk back to shore, the three of us had to return to shore by swimming rather than walking. Although I love to swim (in my memory "swimming" is dog paddling), I was very scared. The feeling/perception that accompanies this memory is that my mother was not a good swimmer, my sister was little and could not swim well, and that somehow I was on my own even though my mother was at my side. In my mid-forties, at a gathering of friends from way back, for some reason I was telling this story to my mother and a few family friends. One of these friends, Rita said, "Sue, I was there. It was me, your mother, your sister, and my daughter. Your story is accurate except for your leaving out me and Joanie." My mother added that she thinks I was six or seven, not five.
"Making psychological guesses about why all the real participants were not in my memory is fairly obvious. What interests me as a therapist is that most of the memory is accurate and that the feeling/interpretation would remain the same whether I remembered everyone who was really there or not. In other words, my experiencing myself as being on my own, although physically near to my mother and sister is attested to by other memories besides this one as well as by corroboration from others who shared or observed my childhood. The memory highlights a certain significant aspect of my childhood, sums it up, so to speak, and speaks its truth in a way that might be less obvious if it were remembered accurately."
Although Sue now admits she did not include Rita and Joanie, there were other errors in her account, namely, the clamming site was Well Fleet not Provincetown (her summer home) and most important her younger sister (4 years old) could not swim. Her mother was not a good swimmer, but Rita, who she omits, was an excellent swimmer. When Rita recalled the incident, it had little significance to her, whereas the younger girls had no memory of the event. However, Sue remembered quite accurately the emotional experience, her fear, and her mother's fear. She speaks of "experiencing myself on her own although physically near to my mother and sister." But what she omits is that her mother actually clutched her sister in one hand (the pail of clams was in the other) as they walked rather than swam together to the beach. Thus, in this childhood memory, the actual event was confirmed by two adults, but the events were distorted by Sue. However, the emotional experience of fear and of "being on her own" was revealed, but the affect of jealousy and anger related to her mother clutching her younger sister was hidden.
In regard to the controversy about the veracity and validation of memories of childhood sexual and/or physical abuse, it is most important to know the setting in which these memories were obtained. Until around 10 years ago, my interest in early childhood memories took the form of simply asking the patient to relate his/her earliest childhood memory, after which I would let the patient talk (associate) and then ask for his/her next memory, since there was usually a connection between the two.
In the past 10 years in taking histories from patients in 2 different settings, a consultation-liaison service (both inpatient and outpatient) at a University hospital and mental health clinics in small towns in Kentucky, I simply asked "Were you physically and/or sexually abused as a child?" The question was usually answered in a straightforward manner, being positive in about 30% to 40% of women and about 10% of men. However, if the repeated incident occurred before the age of 5/6, it was viewed as no different than any other early childhood memory. This is an entirely different situation from childhood memories of sexual abuse revealed under hypnosis and in psychotherapeutic sessions. In the latter instances, the memory may serve, as Freud originally stated, as a defense against a contemporary event and a revision subject to the influence of later psychic forces. In psychotherapy, the event is something the therapist may have done, an intervention, whether intended or not (i.e., through suggestion, seduction, countertransference), which may be perceived by the patient as seductive, and then represented in the screen memory (personal communication, Lang R., May 10, 1995).
I would urge those interested in the subject of early childhood memories to read or reread Freud's original papers on the subject.
REFERENCES
-
Freud S: Screen memories, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 1899, Vol III. New York, Basic Books, 1960, pp. 47–69
-
Freud S: Childhood memories and screen memories, in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, 1901. London, England, Hogarth Press, 1960, pp. 46–48
-
Jhabvala RP: Poet and Dancer. New York, Doubleday, 1993, p. 7
-
Unsworth B: Out of Egypt (book review). The New York Times, Book Review Section, Feb 5, 1995, p. 7
-
Abrams S: Is memory not a trusted archivist? The American Psychoanalyst 1995, 20, pp.1–4
-
Kahana R., Weiland H, Snyder B, et al: The value of early memories in psychotherapy. Psychiatr Q 1953; 27:73–83[Medline]
-
Lang R, Rothenberg M, Fishman D, et al: A method for clinical and theoretical study of the earliest memory. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1960; 3:523–534
-
Lang R: Earliest memories and personality disorders: a predictive study. J Nerv Ment Dis 1965; 12:379–396
-
Lang R: First memories and characterlogic diagnosis. J Nerv Ment Dis 1963; 141:318–320
Get information about faster international access.
Privacy Policy
Copyright © 1998
Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.
All rights reserved.
Home
| Search
| Current Issue
| Past Issues
| Subscribe
| All APPI Journals
| Help
| Contact Us
|
