A childhood recollection from DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT

This small essay is found in the book "The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII (1917-1919) An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works", this is a small essay on the recollection of memories from childhood. It begins with the explanation of how what we call from as memories is normally a mixture of memories and what we have been told ourselves by a third party and an amalgamation of the two factors creates our memories. He then goes into his earliest memory, one of which is when he is throwing plates and breakables from the kitchen out of his door to the amusement of his neighbours. Afterwards the topic changes to what or why is it that our childhood memories are what they are, not normally important memories some even seen quite superficial. The most important memory you can muster is normally the earliest memory you have, this memory shapes your life and with further psychoanalysis it was evident in one patient that the writer had treated. An expert from the writing: "He was a man of twenty-seven, highly educated and gifted, whose life at that time was entirely filled with a conflict with his mother that affected all his interests, and from the effects of which his capacity for love and his ability to lead an independent existence had suffered greatly. This conflict went far back into his childhood; certainly to his fourth year. Before that he had been a very weakly child, always ailing, and yet that sickly period was glorified into paradise in his memory; for then he had had exclusive, uninterrupted possession of his mother’s affection." It was interesting that the man in question had in fact altered his memories not on the physical level of how he was physically but more so for the nature of his happiness which was obviously from a rooted longing of his mothers affection, this, when removed, became the root of all his problems in later years. after a bit more reading its apparent that, in an event that still occurs today, he had a new baby brother born when he was 4, thus tearing him away from his mothers full affection, this kind of mental behaviour happens today, showing that he human mind, in an infantile state is unaffected by culture or times progression. It turns out that this small blip in his early stages in development, managed to twist him in the later years, he abused his favourite animals, and had a very cruel streak and these were impulses of his tormented childhood, resonating through to his later life. it goes on to express other cases and how that siblings have respect for the brothers and sisters that existed before themselves and direct their anger towards the newcomers, then there is more writings about older brothers acting as farther figures to impose superiority onto the younger and introduce the pecking order, if you will. The writing is basically talking about how what we call a memory is an abstract of what we felt and what we were told about the event, the underlying factors to a memory can be carefully analysed and re-packaged into what is more factual.