Forgotten Ideas, Neglected Pioneers: Richard Semon and the Story of Memory

by Schacter,Daniel L.

• ISBN13: 9781841690520
• ISBN10: 184169052X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-05-29
• Publisher: Psychology Pres

Summary

Richard Semon was a German evolutionary biologist who wrote, during the first decade of the twentieth century, two fascinating analyses of the workings of human memory which were ahead of their time. Although these have been virtually unknown to modern researchers, Semon's work has been rediscovered during the past two decades and has begun to have an influence on the field. This book not only examines Semon's contribution to memory research, but also tells the story of an extraordinary life set against the background of a turbulent period in European history and major developments in science and evolutionary theory. The resulting book is an engaging blend of biographical, historical and psychological material. Through the remarkable story of an almost forgotten German biologist, this fascinating book addresses not only key questions in memory research but also wide-ranging and substantive issues in the history and psychology of science.

Author Biography

Daniel L. Schacter is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Ackonowledgments	xiii
Foreword	xv
Endel Tulving
About the Author	xix
Introduction	1	(10)
Story and Characters	3	(1)
Issues: History and Psychology of Science	4	(7)
I: THE STORY
Roots of the Drama	11	(10)
Beginnings	12	(9)
Haeckel, Monism, and the Dilemma of the German Jew	21	(18)
The Oracle of Jena	22	(8)
The Conversion: Causes and Contexts	30	(9)
Journey and Exile	39	(18)
In Search of Ceratodus	42	(7)
Semon in Australia: Some Psychological Perspectives	49	(4)
1897	53	(4)
Battles Won and Lost	57	(20)
The Initial Struggles: 1904--1908	57	(12)
Germany, England, and the Threat of War	69	(2)
The Hermit's Lament: 1909--1914	71	(6)
Prisoners in their Cells	77	(20)
Consequences of the Great War	77	(7)
Felix and the War	84	(3)
Munich, 1918: Journey's End	87	(5)
Richard Semon: Some Final Perspectives	92	(5)
II. THE ISSUES
Organic Memory, Lamarckian Heresy, and semon's Mneme	97	(40)
Neo-Lamarckism and the Challenge of Weismann	98	(8)
Heredity as Memory: Excavations of a Scientific Atlantis	106	(4)
Relationship Between Memory and Heredity	110	(10)
The Mneme	120	(7)
The Reception of Die Mneme: Seeds of Scientific Isolation	127	(10)
Retrieval: The Mnemonic Missing Link	137	(26)
Memory Research in the Era of ebbinghaus and Muller: Critical Concerns of an emerging Science	140	(8)
Where is Retrieval?	148	(4)
Association and the Problems of Retrieval	152	(5)
Voices in the Wilderness	157	(6)
Semon's theory and the Modern Psychology of Memory	163	(18)
Preliminaries: The Engram	166	(2)
Conditions, Funcions, and Processes of Retrieval	168	(7)
Semon's Theory and Four Problems of Memory	175	(6)
Revolutionaires, Cranks, and the Research Community: Perspectives on Unrecognized Scientific Contributions	181	(34)
Theory Evaluation as Signal-Detction: An Heuristic Analogy	182	(2)
Null Effect: Semon's Influence on Memory Research	184	(11)
The Scientific Crank and Correct Rejections	195	(2)
The March of the Invisible Men: Profiles in Scientific Neglect	197	(12)
The Revolutionry and the Crank: Some Final Perspectives	209	(6)
The Psychology of the Isolated Scientist	215	(28)
Isolation, Recognition, and Intellectual Passions	216	(5)
The Anchorite Gallery: Struggles of the Isolated Scientist	221	(19)
The Psychology of the Isolated Scientist: Some Final Perspectives	240	(3)
Epilogue: Past, Present, and Future in Psychology	243	(4)
Appendix: Richard Semon's Theory of Memory	247	(30)
References	277	(14)
Author Index	291	(8)
Subject Index	299