Memory and self are two entities that should be considered one in the same. There have been many philosophers and cognitive scientists a like who have argued that memory and self identity have a symbiotic link with one another; one can not fully exist without the other. Although many have differing opinions on how and exactly why memory interacts with self, they all draw a connection between these two entities.
John Locke is considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment. His work on religious tolerance, price value and property, and politics influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. Locke is also considered to be father of the theory of mind, and is the first person to define the self as being a stream of accumulating consciousness. His writings and theories were influential and often cited by Hume, Rousseau, and Kant.
In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke attributes self identity and knowledge with memory. Locke postulates that at birth, the mind is a blank slate, what he refers to as tabula rasa. Through life experiences we develop knowledge and in conjunction with memory of those experiences the self is born. Our knowledge and identity continue to grow and flourish as these experiences fill the once blank slate. Locke continued to argue that our sense of identity encompasses all that we can recall of our past; that which we cannot remember does not have a role in defining who we are. Our exististence extends as far back as we have memory.
“As far as [a] consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that person; it is the same self now as it was then; and it is by the same self with this present one that now reflects on it, that that action was done”
Locke states that with the presence of memory of that past, we are the same being as the being that had these experiences as they occurred. If one can recall some experience, Locke says that that person in fact had that experience. According to Locke, our identity begins with our earliest memories and not a moment earlier. Consequently, without memory of ones past, or a sense of historical continuity via memory, a person does not own a sense of self. Therefore a person suffering from memory loss due to illness of accident would be void of self identity in Lockean thinking.
Antonio Damasio Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, an Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute, and the author of several books describing his scientific thinking, Antonio Damasio is among the leading bellwethers of neuroscientists bridging the gap between the self, emotions and human rationality with the biological aspect of human beings. Damasio has put forth many hypotheses about the connection of consciousness and neurobiology ranging from motions are part of homeostatic regulation and are rooted in reward/punishment mechanism to the relationship of self identity and consciousness.
Damasio believed that consciousness stemmed from an organism’s perceptions of objects. Objects are defined as an entity that can be perceived by the organism, resulting in the formation of an image of this object. These images convey the organism’s reaction, thoughts and any other cognitive effect that the object has on the organism. An object can be anything from a tree, to a symphony; any sort of stimulus that can be perceived and have an effect on the mind. Consciousness can be divided into two categories which are dependent on one another: Core and Extended Consciousness.
- Core consciousness is the awareness of self from moment to moment. Core consciousness does not provide reflection on the past, nor insight into the future, rather it arises from the immediate interaction with the organism and the objects.
- Extended consciousness on the other hand allows there to be a sophisticated sense of self. Through collections of core consciousness and memories, the individual can acknowledge both a past filled with experiences and perceptions as well as an existence in the foreseeable future.
Extended consciousness is a mosaic of our self comprised of our core consciousnesses which are the tiles that create the final image. The interaction between the two levels of consciousness give rise to what Damasio calls the Autobiographical Self. This sense of self uses autobiographical memories to enrich core consciousness and reinforce a sense of self identity in relation to historical time, both with a past and future. Memories of events, thoughts and experiences pertinent to self create an intricate sense of identity. The autobiographical self also allows human beings to interact with each other and integrate themselves into society. It can be argued, although Damasio himself did not focus very much attention on the thought, that without autobiographical memory as well as memory of past interactions with objects, there would be no sense of self identity. Damasio claims that higher mammals are subject to core consciousness however are not capable to conjure an autobiographical self. Therefore without memory there would be no distinction between reasoning human beings and animals. The presence of extended consciousness, which is comprised of memories, is vital for the existence of a self. It is under this reasoning that the absence of memory would prevent a self from being maintained or even created in the first place.
Oliver Sacks is a physician and professor of Neurology at the NYU School of Medicine. Sacks is best known for his neurological case studies on cognitive ailments, namely amnesia, hallucinations and prosopagnosia. He is a best selling author of several books including “The Abyss” and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, where Sacks presents two cases of patients suffering from severe cases of amnesia.
In The Abyss, Clive Wearing, an English Musician, suffered from an infection induced amnesia in 1985 which left him with a memory span of a few seconds. From the onset of his amnesia in 1985, Clive has not been able to form any type of memory and is in a constant state of cycling forgetfulness. In conjunction with his inability to form new memories, Clive also suffered from retrograde amnesia, virtually erasing his entire past. There were traces of knowledge that remained, including the unwavering recognition and love of his wife, Deborah. This residual knowledge however was rendered practically useless with every moment being fleeting for Clive. In hopes of creating some continuity, Clive began keeping a journal. Although the entries were reflective of his ailment in the sense that they were repetitive and redundant with no prior recollection of the previous entries. With almost no memory of his past, and the inability to create new memories, Clive describes each new moment as awakening into consciousness for the first time. With no record of his autobiographical life, Clive is unable to even comprehend being conscious previously
“It was as if every waking moment was the first waking moment. Clive was under the constant impression that he had just emerged from unconsciousness because he had no evidence in his own mind of ever being awake before. . . . “I haven’t heard anything, seen anything, touched anything, smelled anything,” he would say. “It’s like being dead.” -Deborah Wearing
Despite the fact that Clive still has the ability to perceive and observe through all his senses, this information is not catalogued and therefore can not be referenced for future use. In Damasian terms, Clive still is experiencing the relationship between organism and object; however he is stuck in a perpetual state of core-consciousness. Without the ability to compile and save these moments of core consciousness, Clive is void of any form of extended consciousness, also excluding him from forming an autobiographical self. Although his episodic memory was vacant, Clive still had access to an array of semantic memory. He can still write and speak several languages, perform mathematical
calculations, maintain a very elegant sense of fashion style, and has access to a very large vocabulary. He was still able to identify objects and even hold conversations regarding the environment, astronomy and history. The key is to keep Clive engaged. The moment he was left to his own thoughts, he would fall back into his moments of conscious awakenings. The most fantastic show of this retention of procedural memory was Clive’s retained ability to perform musically, whether he was conducting his old choir, or playing the piano. This is common with most amnesic patients, of course with variations from case to case. This is concrete proof that there are distinct types of memory and that although they can influence each other, they are separate entities independent of each other.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
The patient, William Thompson, suffers from Korsakoff’s syndrome which leaves him, quite similarly to Clive, with the inability to retain new memories. What made Mr. Thompson’s case different than Clive’s was that Mr. Thompson’s mind was constantly searching for continuity and harmony within the world around him. Instead of probing into his own damaged self for the truth, he created constantly evolving identities and relationships. Within the first few moments of meeting Sacks, Thompson incorrectly identified Sacks as a customer of his former delicatessen, asking for his order, then as an old friend who used to accompanied him to the race track, and then finally a competing butcher from across the street; all this before it finally dawned upon him that Sacks was in fact a doctor. A moment after discovering the reality, Mr. Thompson asked for Sacks’ deli order once again, already forgetting who Sacks was. Mr. Thompson was constantly coming up with fictional experiences, identities and people he had met. The accounts he came up with were sometimes a bit outlandish. Sacks recalls speaking with a taxi driver who once chauffeured Mr. Thompson on a trip he took in the past. The driver maintained that Mr. Thompson was the most fascinating passenger he had ever had.
“He seemed to have been everywhere, done everything, met everyone. I could hardly believe so much was possible in a single life.” (110).
This was Mr. Thompson’s attempt to find his way out of the abyss of unconsciousness. Sacks writes:
“We have, each of us, a life story, an inner narrative—whose continuity, whose sense is our lives. It might be said that each of us constructs and lives, a ‘narrative’, and that this narrative is us, our identities.” (110)
Mr. Thompson’s confabulations are not deceptive in nature, nor are they consciously fabrications at all. To him, everything he comes up with is fact. These inventions are the way in which Mr. Thompson anchors himself to reality. These works of fiction are manifestations of episodic memory which give him some version of identity. When Mr. Thompson isn’t discussing his “past” he is often very disoriented and agitated. This uneasiness that comes with absence of him creating reality is the reason why he is constantly finding ways to bridge himself to the world. This shows that memory is such a necessity to form identity that the mind will go to extreme measures such as fabricating reality to attempt to create and maintain the self.