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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    for a vague phrase upon the conservation and reproduction of memory, a clear representation of the extremely complex process which pro- duces and sustains it. The first point to be established is with re- gard to the seat of memory. This question can give no room for serious controversy. The law, as formulated by Bain, is that the renewed feeling occupies the very same parts, and in the same manner, as the original feeling. To give a striking example: experiment shows that the persistent idea of a brilliant color fatigues the optic nerve. We know that the perception of a colored object is often followed by a consecutive sensation which shows us the object with the same outline, but in a complementary color. It may be the same in the memory. It leaves, although with less intensity, a consecutive image. If with closed eyes we keep before the imagina- tion a bright-colored figure for a long time, and then suddenly open the eyes upon a white sur- face, we may see for an instant the imaginary object with a complementary color. This fact, noted by Wundt, from whom we borrow it, proves that the nervous process is the same in both cases—in perception and in remembrance.* We now begin to see more clearly into the * For further details on this point, see Bain, The Senses and the Intellect, p. 358.