An observation and comments on the development of memory

Portal aspects of memory overlay in psychoanalysis. An object relations contribution to screen memory phenomena

Distortion in screen memories illustrates the unique manner in which part-object representations unite perceptions from different temporal periods. "Portal" aspects of a given source memory designate anachronistic distortions borrowed from perceptions at a subsequent time when the source memory and its full emotional significance attempted access to consciousness. The unconscious perception of recall at the subsequent occasion is represented by the appearance of portal details in the source dream. The portal concept is related to object relations theory and the psychology of memory.

On the persistence of very early memory traces in psychoanalysis, myth, and religion

It is tentatively proposed that fragments of certain early perceptual experiences of the parental objects such as the sight of the face and the breast of the mother, the smiling or angry expression of the face, the pleasing or disagreeable character of the voice, the soft touch or rough handling, the sight of the hands may occasionally be recoverable in the course of analysis. Some mythological figures and religious symbols may also hark back to similar motifs. The relation of this material to early modes of perception and the beginnings of object relations is examined. The data are correlated with the findings of child observation and of modern experimental psychology.