our memories

Written by Niek | 19 November 2010

Another recent Dutch television interview of journalist and author Wim Brands, see 'basic drives and evolution', about new books was last Sunday, November 14th , with prof. Douwe Draaisma about his last book in Dutch, called in English the 'oblivion book'. Douwe Draaisma (1953) is Professor of the History of Psychology at the University of Groningen. His new book is about the phenomena of forgetting. He wrote several books – in Dutch - with an excellent writing style, named like 'Metaphors of Memory', 'Why Life Speeds Up as You Get Older', 'Disturbance of the Mind', 'the Nostalgia Factory' etc. 'Draaisma writes in an engaging, almost literary style, his language is careful, and full of well-chosen metaphors. By linking two highly interesting themes, namely history and the brain, Draaisma manages to reach a huge audience' writes the historical publishing company at its website (www.historischeuitgeverij.nl).

In this television interview, like in the book itself, they focus on the phenomena of forgetting. He distinguishes a range of about 256 types of memories and possibly there are some hundreds of them (images, smells, sounds etc). Depending on the development of our neuron connections in our brains. So 'forgetting is a survival mechanism'. And ¾ of our so called first memories are not nice at all. He especially talks about 'the miracle of forgetting'. So it is not so much about the mystery of the logic of forgetting, but the miracle that we have this capacity to forget. The phenomenon itself has a goal he states. There is nothing wrong with forgetting. So the first memory marks not only the beginning of our memories but also the end of all what happened the times before that. The first memory is the very first in a sea of not remembering at all! With other words: we could not remember if we could not forget either.

memory and CCI

For handling our emotions – as we experience them at this very moment, leaving aside when they happened to us - we try to call back what we do remember now from that subject in the past. We recall that situation, as far as we relive it now by paying our attention to it. That doesn't necessarily mean that this is a real reconstruction of how it was. It is our impression seen from the here and now.
We just allow ourselves in CCI to do so because part of the contract I have made with my co-counsellor is just, that he or she doesn't do anything but offering me their free attention. That is, in respect, to let me do what I am doing with the tools available. The contract is, that they allow me to act exactly as I like or need to act. They have no comments. They co-assist me to respect myself and guard me from hurting myself or my environment. They just are 'the silent witness' to find the answer by myself and within myself.