Freud as Memoirist: A Reading of “Screen Memories”

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.

At a time when Freud was deeply engaged in the labor of self-analysis that led to the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), the ground work for much of his subsequent theorizing, he was also concerned with the dynamics of memory itself, the raw material of his own analysis, as well as the basis for the discipline of psychoanalysis. In an essay titled “Screen Memories” (1899), he makes the startling claim that memories from childhood vividly recalled in adult life bear no specific relationship to what happened in the past. Rather, they are composite formations—elements of childhood experience as represented through the distorting lens of adult wishes, fantasies, and desires. Although Freud did not pursue the full implications of such a view of memory, it has proved to be prescient, resonating with two contemporary phenomena: the neural network theory of memory formation and retrieval, and the elevation of memoir writing to premier literary status. These two developments, in turn, pose questions about psychoanalysis as a memory-based discipline. A reading of “Screen Memories” that focuses on the memoiristic aspects of Freud's writing offers a useful point of departure for exploring this issue.

Freud, who began his career as a neurologist, then as a medical practitioner treating patients suffering from neurological diseases, regarded himself primarily as a scientist, even