Diseases of memory : an essay in the positive psychology / by Th. Ribot.

  • Ribot, Th. (Théodule), 1839-1916.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of memory : an essay in the positive psychology / by Th. Ribot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/264 (page 45)
    not realize tliat tliese words are made up of sim- ple éléments ; many are always ignorant of the fact. Conscionsness, wliich is an interior voice, is regnlated by tlie same laws. The apparently simple is, on analysis, fonnd to be complex. Tliere can be no doubt that these simple States, which are the alphabet of conscionsness, require for their conservation and reproduction certain nei’voiis collocations. The facts already cited relative to letters and syllables ofPer snfficient proof. There is another more curions. “A man of scholastic attainments,” says Forbes Winslow, “ lost, after an attack of acute fever, ail knowl- edge of the letter F.” * If, then, we would comprehend a “good mem- ory,” and translate this expression into physio- logical terms, we must imagine a great number of nervous éléments, each modified in a spécial manner, each forming part of a distinct associ- ation and probably ready to enter into others ; and each of these associations containing wûthin itself the conditions essential to the existence of States of conscionsness. Memory has, then, static and dynamic bases. Its power is in ratio with their number and stability. * Op. cit.^ p. 258. The antlior does not tell us whether it was the articnlate Sound or the written sign ; or whether the patient rccovered.