Gone but not forgotten: declarative and nondeclarative memory processes and their contributions to resilience

Bull Menninger Clin. 2001 Fall;65(4):451-70. doi: 10.1521/bumc.65.4.451.19842.

Abstract

Cognitive psychology research challenges traditional psychoanalytic understanding of memory. The memory of facts and events is now referred to as declarative memory. Nondeclarative memory systems, in contrast, process patterns of perception, emotion, and action without representing the past in terms of any consciously accessible content. The author examines the contributions of declarative and nondeclarative memory processes to resilience. Declarative memories can promote resilience through their capacity to evoke soothing emotional responses. Nondeclarative memory processes can foster resilience through underlying the capacity to elicit and maintain supportive relationships. The concept of nondeclarative memory has potential to inform the understanding of essential psychoanalytic phenomena, including transference, countertransference, and enactment.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Affect
  • Aged
  • Conditioning, Classical
  • Habits
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Male
  • Memory / physiology*
  • Psychological Theory
  • Psychomotor Performance