Memory

Bringing together influential writers such as A. S. Byatt with leading scientists including Steven Rose, this engaging collection of essays explores the topic of memory in a uniquely interdisciplinary way. Generously illustrated and accessibly written for the general reader, with insights from psychoanalysis, creative writing, neuroscience, social history and medicine.

This engaging volume for the general reader explores how individuals and societies remember, forget and commemorate events of the past. The collection of eight essays takes an interdisciplinary approach to address the relationships between individual experience and collective memory, with leading experts from the arts and sciences. We might expect scientists to be concerned with studying just the mental and physical processes involved in remembering, and humanities scholars to be interested in the products of memory, such as books, statues and music. This collection exposes the falseness of such a dichotomy, illustrating the insights into memory which can be gained by juxtaposing the complementary perspectives of specialists venturing beyond the normal boundaries of their disciplines. The authors come from backgrounds as diverse as psychoanalysis, creative writing, neuroscience, social history and medicine.