Diseases of memory : an essay in the positive psychology / by Th. Ribot ; tr. from the French by William Huntington Smith.

  • Ribot, Th. (Théodule), 1839-1916.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of memory : an essay in the positive psychology / by Th. Ribot ; tr. from the French by William Huntington Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    such cases it seems as if consciousness had taken upon itself the task of exposing its own peculiar sphere, of reducing its role to proper propor- tions, and of showing, by sudden absence, the supplementary part which it plays in the mech- anism of memory. We are now prepared to advance further and ask what modifications of the organization are necessary for the establishment of a memory ; what changes are undergone by the nervous sys- tem when a group of movements is definitively organized. We here reach the final question, warranted by facts, which can be propounded with regard to the organic bases of memory; and, if organic memory is a property of animal life; of which psychological memory is only a particular phase, all that we are able to discover or conjecture with regard to its ultimate condi- tions will apply equally well to memory as a whole. It is impossible in such a research to avoid hypothesis. But, by evading all d priori con- ceptions, in holding rigidly to the facts, in rest- ing upon what we know of nervous action, we avoid any likelihood of gross error. Our hy- pothesis, moreover, is capable of incessant modi- fication. Finally, it will substitute in the mind, facts of interest will be fonnd in this work. We shall return to it in speaking of the pathology of memory.