Attempt to Understand Memory - Essay Example

Understanding memory and categorizing the overall importance of recollection in terms of the human experience is something that philosophers and scientists have long struggled to affect. As a function of this particular desire, memory has oftentimes been categorized in terms of past experience and a rather one dimensional understanding of the way in which occurrence is understood and impacts upon the individual. However, a more in-depth analysis of memory and the power of recollection denotes the fact that all learning, socialization, understanding, and interpretation takes place as a direct result of memory; Indicating a situation in which memories ultimately form the foundation and walls of the human brain/the human experience. By utilizing memory as a means of categorizing information and understanding the way in which personal experience has contributed to life, the reader can come to a more informed interpretation of the importance that memories have in the day to day decision that an individual makes. Further, world view, personality, socialization, and levels of interpretation are all contingent upon memory and the personal experience as well. Although a great deal of scholarship has been concentric upon discussing socialization means through which norms develop, it will be the express intent of this brief analysis to discuss the importance and power that individual memory can have; and importance and power that this author will argue prompts all factors of socialization and societal mores. Accordingly, the discussion that will take place within this brief analysis will be contingent upon pages 166-167 of the text; a piece entitled “All the Little Flowers”. Firstly, it must be understood that socialization, a rubric and metric that individuals have long sought to utilize as a means of understanding human interaction, is ultimately only the product of a string of different memories. In such a way, this socialization is not a solid construct but a fluid one that differs greatly from one individual to another. For instance, even though a shared and collective level of understanding might be had with regards to a specific instance or occurrence, the unique and differentiated memories that are associated with this occurrence will diverge greatly if one compares one set of memories that an individual relates to another set of memories that another person shares. As a direct result of the fact that memories are real and working constructs through which reality is defined and understood, the overall similarity that might exist between a society full of individuals with their own unique and individual memories is necessarily rather limited. Scholars and psychologists have long argued that the normative influence of society somehow from the individualist factors that determine socialization and levels of engagement. However, from a view an understanding of the power of memory, and the importance that it has, the reader can come to an informed understanding and interpretation with respect to the fact that individualized memory is perhaps the only shared construct that exists categorically between all human beings throughout society. In addition to the way in which memory is a shared construct that exist throughout all members of society, it must also be realized that it is still unique to the individual. This is so much true that even though a certain level of similarity with regards to worldview an understanding might exist, the court differential that is expected to be evidenced is contingent upon the fact that any and all memories are not only the result of the situation but are categorized within terms of other memories, understandings, rationalizations, and realizations that the human has experienced previously within the course of their own life. These memories are not something that an individual can control; rather, they are the representation of understanding that an individual is left with after a perception of reality and occurrence has passed. Yet, even though the analysis has thus far been concentric upon defining the nebulous realities of memory, it must also be noted that memory serves as the constant of human experience. A contextual analysis of the piece reveals the fact that flowers are habitually compared to the power that memory has over the individual. In much the same way that the persistence of memory is related to flowers, the following section will indicate one of the more powerful quotes with regards to this understanding and seek to draw a further level of understanding based upon such a representation. Said the text in question, “Precisely where they become controllable and objective five, where the subject believes himself entirely sure of them, memories fade like delicate wallpapers in bright sunlight. But where, protected by oblivion, they keep their strength, they are endangered like all that is alive” (Adorno 166). The interesting component of this particular quote has to do with the fact that memory is not a guaranteed form of understanding or interpretation that will necessarily exists throughout the entire life or experience of the individual in question. As the reader has no doubt noted within their own life, memory is something that can oftentimes they’ll the user; resulting in and he’ll ability to conjure, remember, expect, or understand a particular situation. As the above quote indicates, the failure of memory is a can to “the endangerment of all things that are alive”. By representing memory in this vivid contextual manner, the quote that has been provided above helps to illustrate the way in which individuals can easily lose an understanding of current reality or past integration based upon forgetfulness and/or the replacement of a new memory in favor of the old. Once again, the fluid dynamics of memory and the way in which individuals integrate with the world in which they live is represented thoroughly within such an understanding. Besides merely for getting a particular piece of information, the very real and present danger of perennially replacing one memory with another is the way in which the human brain grows, expands, and helps to define the reality in which it lives. Although this subjective identification of the world that has been provided might be somewhat discouraging with regards to the creation and relevance of absolute truth, the fact of the matter is that it is represented in each and every individual; regardless of their worldview with a level of integration with which they make in society. Final contextual meaning that will be discussed is with regards to the fact that memory, as compared to many other psychological or physiological realities, is not necessarily philosophical or subjective as such; rather, it merely exists. This level of existential understanding helps to represent the way in which memory continues to transform and is made a level of descriptive analysis. Much as the title of this particular work entails, the likeness of memory to flowers is profound and relevant. In much the same way that a flower can be defined based upon its existence and the manner through which it transforms itself in time, memory can also be understood within the very same context. By means of further comparison, the ability and natural process of the flower blooming, fading, dying, and ultimately decaying, sometimes even giving way to the growth and birth of new flowers is clearly indicative of the manner through which memories are replaced and the individual seeks to define the reality in which they live based upon these paradigms. Although it is true that memory does not always lend itself to such a convenient definition and understanding, as the one that has been represented within this analysis, the difficulty of discussing something as broad as memory in simple terms has to do with the fact that such a representation does not do the topic due justice with regards to its scope and importance. Work Cited Adorno, Theodor W., and E. F. N. Jephcott. Minima moralia : reflections on a damaged life. London New York: Verso, 2005. Print. Read More