Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Blog Post #1: Due Class #16--Freud's Note on the Mystic Writing Pad
Relate Freud’s theory to either your own life (using personal narrative)
or to society (using impersonal analysis). Then comment on two other
students’ responses. Write your response directly on the blog and copy/paste it
into your google doc.
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Freud’s theory can relate to my own life because during my middle school days my parents brought me a journal where I had the freedom to write down anything that had come to mind- specifically what went through that day, what I had wished, or my thoughts in general so that I can be able to flip back to my memories and be reminded of them again. Freud stated that writing memories down on paper lets you know that you can have access to getting more paper which means that the old papers that are in the bottom of the pile become burned or forgotten memories which is significant because it depends on the way your techniques are when it comes to remembering your memories. I used every sheet of paper from my journal so I can flip back and say "Oh I remember this moment" but that may not go for everyone because images can be also used to remember a specific memory. I believe that Freud’s comparison of a magic slate toy with our memories is an accurate metaphor because having something to flip back to (the journal) it will always be there written. This also goes for memories, which can never be forgotten or replaced with other memories.
ReplyDelete- TIFFANY DA SILVA
That's true, and it makes it easier to remember because you wrote it down, for someone else they would just have to have a reason to remember that. For example just having a conversation with someone on a specific topic may spark something in your memory that will allow you to visualize something from years ago. Old memories are never truly forgotten.
Delete-Alexandria J.
Sharmin Sultana:
DeleteWhen you mentioned that you can flip back to your memories, how often would we actually do that, in practical terms? Our human nature tends to live in the moment, and when it comes to revisiting the past or imagining the future, we become a little shaky with it. Especially when a memory torments us, we prefer to leave it hidden in the depths of our mind and not encounter it again, both intentionally and accidentally.
I disagree with you, Sharmin, I think we flip back to our memories very often because, to me, thats how we make comparisons to things that have already happened in our lives. Flipping back to our memories is a way for us to not repeat mistakes and to have new experiences.
DeleteFreud's theory about memory can be experienced in our day to day life. For example as students, we are constantly memorizing the material that we need for tests and quizzes. But after that quiz/ test its as if our mind had flushed everything out. Similarly to what Freud said once we peel off that first layer, it becomes very vague. The memories still leaves an imprint but its all jumbled together. We need to sort it all out before it becomes comprehensible again. I can relate to this idea in my own daily life. During a class, I would have a very clear cut picture of what is happening in the class. But after a long day of classes, I would sometimes mix the information from some classes together. Only when I stop and think, do I realize my mistake.. By comparing it to an early version of a magic slab toy, I believe that Freud gives an accurate description of our memories.
ReplyDeleteThis is me Gregory Wong
DeleteI agree with you about the quiz and exam part, but I think that is partially due to the fact that what we learn in school doesn't always pertain to what we would need to know for our career choice, if we already have in mind what we want to do. Meaning that if something is significant for a short time we we try to remember it, but we often forget it. However if it is important to know far long into the future we try harder to remember it.
Delete-Alexandria J.
I agree with your example when it comes to memorizing a specific thing for a quiz that you may know and understand better at that exact time during that class but hours later things you just learned becomes a blur as time passes- but when you'd come back to that specific thing again in class you'd remember things from like two weeks ago and would start putting things together piece by piece.
Delete-Tiffany Da Silva
I agree with your interpretation Greg, memory are indeed like mystic writing pads, in the sense that we keep on adding our most recent memories or experiences in the top and push our previous ones farther back in our heads. This is really relatable to us as a student, how we study last minute before a quiz and remember it till be take the quiz and after it's over then it's out of our minds forever. You made a really good connection.
DeleteI agree with all of you when you say that we push that information towards the back of heads, but you you think that we ever absolutely forget it? I think it's always going to be there but it might be very hard to recall it.
DeleteI agree because i can relate to this, but i sometimes forgot things the moment i erase them from the magic slate
DeleteI believe that Freud's theory about memory is not completely true. Freud states that we can keep writing on the Mystic Writing Pad, but eventually it will get too full and you will have to erase your memory by lifting the paper up to have a clean slate allowing you to make room for more memories. However it is impossible to completely forget memories that are old. I believe our memories work on how significant something is and even if it is important, will we need it for a long time or is it just important for the time being. We just add onto old memories, kind of like the Stack of Papers idea, but just because a memory on the bottom of the pile doesn't mean we can't remember it, we just have to have a reason to remember it or have a desire to remember something that old. For example, a few months ago my mother and I were talking about our oldest memories as babies and I told her I remember being in the baby-walker and how I hated that I couldn't take the toys off the little table because it was attached to it. Her face was so surprised, she told me I was out of the walker before I turned a year old, so it is possible to have a very old memory, I think the only reason I could remember that was because of the conversation we were having. That experience is why I do not completely agree with Freud's theory.
ReplyDelete-Alexandria J.
I never really thought of your perspective on how memory's are not forgotten because they are at the back of our heads, but because they may be just not worth remembering. For us to remember something, we have to have something significant associated with it. I understand where you are coming from in your argument.
DeleteI feel that Freud's theory is cover a more wide range of people compare to what you said. It is really true that it is "impossible" to completely forget memories that are old. What about people who have Alzheimer. They easily forget what happen, just like as Freud say our brain is like a black board; we have to erase whats on it to record more newer information. Are they not the exception?
Delete-Gregory Wong
I disagree with your point that we remember memories due to how significant they are to us. Yes, this may be one reason we remember things but it does not apply to everyone. There are many people that have the ability to remember more insignificant memories than anything else. I also want to impose a question on wether you really remembered being in a baby-walker or not. Our life is merely made up of our perspectives of different scenarios. I am thinking that maybe your mom told you once about a time that you were in a baby-walker and explained it in a very vivid way. Then you began to tell the story as if you remember it actually happening when in actuality, you are just remembering what your mom told you.
Delete-Sherien Hassan
I completely agree with your point Sherien. It is not necessarily true that we remember only the significant details in our life. Sometimes, even the most trivial matters become a reoccurring notion in our life. The capacity to remember particular memories varies from person to person and this is due to the distinctive way our minds work. If you could remember your childhood memories like that, then more power to you. But we should also bear in mind, how much of it is true?
Delete-Nuhirath Rafthia
I agree with you because sometimes we may be in the middle of a conversation then all the sudden you forget what you were talking about, but when you really wanted to remember what you wanted to say- you wouldn't but when you actually sit down and not even think about what you wanted to say before- you do. But I disagree with you when you said that you may remember things that may be important. You can remember the little things that may have annoyed you when you remember- that's not important.
ReplyDelete-Tiffany Da Silva
The reason we do actually remember those small, non-important memories is because they actually ARE important! You don't need a big incident to have a big impact. Sometimes, the small ones relate to us the most, which is why we unconsciously recall them, even if we consider them minuscule at first. When the puzzle pieces come together, we see how much of an impact that small little memory was at the end, and just give a smile, or a frown!
DeleteFreud's theorizes about how memory should be recorded best in a mystic writing pad. He goes on explaining how memory can be "deposited" somewhere in the back of our heads, and to avoid this it is essential to have a "permanent-memory trace" by using a writing pad or paper. A mystic writing pad is like our brains, that stores everything, and when needed we can just pull it out, by recalling little instances. Also like a mystic writing pad, as we experience new things, our older memory are in the back of our heads and our most recent memory in the front. We learn to add onto our memory and often times end up loosing our previous memories as we age. This is very relatable to me because my brain is like a data warehouse, that stores everything I learn in school and outside of school. As I progressed from 1st grade to 12th grade, I have forgotten everything I learned from 1st to 8th grade, recall bits of 9th to 11th grade material and 12th grade being the most memorable because it is the most recent.
ReplyDelete- Diya Patel
I agree with what you say Diya. Our brains store everything like a writing pad or paper, but as we experience more things, part of it is loss. In sense would you say that our brain is very disorganized, since it constantly loses parts of our memories that it has written down. I find this idea very interesting.
Delete-Gregory Wong
I can relate to the education example and how the memories we hold get stored and the most recent are remembered. I am not saying that we choose what memories we want forgotten but we do hold some value in what we want to be remembered.
DeleteI agree with diya. In any subject in school, I seem to remember either if it is recent or it was significant.
DeleteSharmin Sultana:
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Freud's theory, I have made some reflections about our society. As citizens of this world, we tend to take our brain and memory as either a "recovery disk" or a "disposal can." We pick and choose what we want to remember and sometimes the mere storage of it doesn't actually help recall things we want at that instance. We are so indulged in multiple things that it becomes tough to remember our initial intention. Therefore, how useful IS a "mystic writing pad" for us? Do we really want to have a storage for our memories when all we are really doing is creating and replacing memories? Very rarely do we utilize our memory for permanent storage. We are only attempting to remember certain things, recovering and replacing them without any actual backup. Therefore, the human memory is a very tricky thing.
I disagree with your point that we pick and choose what we want to remember. There has been various situations where people involuntarily remembered something. Also, if we look at how the human brain functions, we see that there is more than enough storage for memories and never will anything get erased so the mystic writing pad metaphor is accurate. Yes, anyone would love to remember everything they experience even if there are more memories to come. Childhood memories are just one of the things people desire to remember because it is what shapes us. if we did not have a recollection of the past, there would be no way possible to define who we are.
DeleteI disagree with Freud's theory that we only remember the most recent events that happened in our lives, and that everything that happened to us years and years ago are buried in our memories. I believe that never truly forget anything that has happened to us, I think that they are stored somewhere in the back of our minds and the way we remember them is by having another event trigger something significant that happened at that time. Then, we can "uncover" what happened long ago and reflect on it in the present. I think that we are also changing with our experiences. I believe that we are what our experiences make us, without going through things in our lives, we can't learn and grow from them and become the people we are currently living as.
ReplyDelete-Sera Knobler
I definitely agree with you when you said that certain memories can be triggered through another event. This is true for subconscious information, but even more true for our unconscious state of mind, in which memories don't usually come out of the patch unless pulled by a greater force.
Delete-Nuhirath Rafthia
I agree what you have to say about never forgetting something is impossible because it will always can be trigger from our subconscious. I think Ms Walsh was talking about this during class how this man could recall every detail from his subconscious.Even though we may think we don't know the memory its always there in inside our brains
DeleteI agree with your statement however, do you believe when something triggers a memory its inaccurate because the bias you place on the experience that you are in now instead of what actually happened?
DeleteI don't necessarily agree with Freud's theory because when he said that as we wrote on that magical board, it would soon enough become full and we would have to erase those memories and then we would eventually forget them. I don't think that we would forget those memories, just because we erased them doesn't mean that we are forced to forget them. When I was younger my mom put me on a plane to Italy to visit my friend she gave me a journal. She told me that this was something that you should always keep with you and feel free to write anything down. Write what you ate, what you saw, your feelings so that eventually a few years from now you can look back at it and remember these memories and continue to keep on writing. This contradicts Freud's theory because he feels that you only can remember so many things, once you erase or get rid of you memory you can't go back to it. I disagree with him because all these memories are in our minds and we are brought back to them by something that has something to do with it. You can't get rid of memories, they may be lost but never forgotten
ReplyDeleteI agree with Armand comment because memories will always stay with you. Like their's some memories I can't forget. It will always be unlock in the back of my mind til the day I die.
DeleteAccording to psychological theories, our minds run on three angles: the conscious zone, the subconscious zone, and the unconscious zone. When we are conscious, we are aware of our present state of being. With each passing second, we fabricate data that is to be stored somewhere in our brain. Freud mentioned how each time we write our memories on paper, it becomes buried by newer forms of information. Similarly, with the present moment, we create new memories which pile up on our older ones. That leads us to our subconscious zone. These memories are accessible, but we don;t turn to them as much. We become aware of a specific detail when we direct our attention to it. I am pretty sure all of us had a dream once which we could not seem to remember the next morning when we woke up. Then we start to think about particular people and all of a sudden, we pick up bits of our dream and soon gain the big picture in it's entirety. These memories are so recent or repetitive that it becomes integrated in our brains as a course of it's own. Freud stated how writing in a slate toy can help us collect new information and retain old information as well. Similarly, our subconscious memories are retained in a corner of a bunch of other memories, only to be picked up by our conscious self. However, as we tend to disassociate ourselves with certain memories, these memories tend to weaken to a point we don't think about them. This is our unconscious state of mind. These memories never go away, but are very hard to pick up. Imagine it this way. Freud said that when we write on a board, we must erase it at some point. But do we completely erase our memories? When we take the eraser to remove the chalk, we see the board cleared, just like we can't remember our unconscious memories, but the chalk particles never fade away (according to the conservation of mass theory) just like our memories never truly fade away.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Freud's idea with comparing our memory to a blackboard vs a piece of paper such as a notebook. The main point of this theory is we choose what to remember by writing it down and storing the memory. Like a notebook going back to the dates to find information you'd written a long time ago. With a blackboard writing the note and gets erase. How will you remember what have you written. Base I my experience with this method was studying for math test. Without my notes I wouldn't remember what I've learned. Also the theory has to do with choice as well. Having the choice to write whats important to be stored.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Cece. Writing down our memories each time they happen, can help us remember them more clearly and make them more reliable and accurate.
DeleteFreud's theory can relate to my life because often times I can find myself sitting in the subway and someone will say a word and I will then remember a time in my life when that word applied. For example, if someone said the word 'roller-coaster' I would then recall a time I went to six flags and start to reminiscence on that. Other times I could be alone and a random memory just pops into my head almost randomly.
ReplyDeleteI agree that certain phrases or images can trigger a reflex in our mind, which brings a sedated memory to the forefront of our attention
DeleteThe most relevant memories are more clear to us when what you recall is in the present setting. Memories that happen years ago may be lost or hazy depending on how much the memory has impacted your life. Those "insignificant moments" however, the things that occur to us that may not be important, although they may not be directly remembered, with triggers, we could gain some idea of what happened. For example, when I got my first build-a-bear, I do not remember what exact heart I got, or the bear color that I got, but I do remember the creation of the certificate. The memory of it did not just pop in my mind but the memory was triggered when I saw my younger sister get her first build-a-bear. The memory was not accurate but it was recalled. Freud's perception of memories are applicable to me because of the alteration I have made on my memory was based off of emotions and not fact. Despite this memory, what happened to me during a volleyball game earlier today is more relevant in my life than me building a build-a-bear because it just occurred.I know that we lost to Luperon 4-27 because this was most present in my life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, insignificant memories tend to fade, while the important ones are at the forefront of the mind
DeleteI agree with you but we even forget significant memories sometimes.
DeleteYes Mariama I agree with you but i have to say that nothing is truly forgotten because with a light pull "reminder" things can be brought back to life.
DeleteI also agree with you. Memories are are often forgotten until they are needed
DeleteFreud’s theory is something that I can mostly agree with because in the beginning of freshman year the school gave us planners. It help us to remind ourselves for important assignments and due dates. The planner was tool to keep students organize, and not rely on their memories. Like there somethings I would have like to have wrote down in my planner instead asking a friend if we had homework or not. We choose whether which things we write about is important or not. We remind ourselves because we don’t want to forget. Our memories is not reliable, but we write things down to never forget.
ReplyDeleteI partially agree with you, it's true that some/many of us used our planners to write down the homework, however the planners ended up useless as they were more time consuming to take out, and write down, Eventually students relied on teachers's blogs, Jupiter Grades, and their peers to remind them of their homework. What I'm getting at is that even though we wrote down out "memories" and experiences, we were still selective to implement them in our lives.
Delete-Awais Rahman
I do not agree with Freud's theory. I vividly remember something from when I was five years old, when my parents took me to Disney Land. The most important memories are the ones that you remember, rather than memories according to the time most recent
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you Raimi for the simple fact that Freud is not saying that a memory cannot be remembered vividly but that it is distorted by our other memories. So if you remember that memory vividly its only because you have other memories that are similar to that memory that allow you to continuously shape that old memory.
DeleteAfter reading Freud's theory, it makes me wonder how reliable our memories. If we just set our old memories aside, who can say that we haven't altered them and remembered it how we want to. That it why is it is hard for me to sometimes write about things that happened in the past, I remember some parts of the story but not all, so I feel as if the story is not worth telling since it is incomplete.
ReplyDelete- Mariama Jaiteh
I agree with you Mariama. I think that it is true that we tend to forget old memories because they are constantly replaced with new ones.
DeleteMemories that aren't as important in your life won't play as much of a significant role, as more important ones. For example, When I was in middle school, I never really talked to anyone or try to make memories with any of them. I never liked my middle school and most of the time, I was just trying to do well and get out with a good grade. Those three years flew by, and I never looked back on it much. It was always on the back of my mind, and everyone from my middle school sort of just drifted apart.However, memories from this year and my high school years I have remembered. I think that this is because those memories are much more current and recent, whereas the others were from many years ago. In my opinion, little memories are not remembered as much as big ones such as a huge achievement you accomplished, or which high school you got into.Smaller memories get replaced with newer ones, and they often become unclear Because we are always creating new memories, we start to forget the ones on the bottom from a long time ago. Ultimately, I think memories are all apart of us, but smaller ones aren't as highly regarded and we tend to forget those the most.
ReplyDelete-Cindy Yu
According Freud's theory I believe that we should live collectively in order to get a sense of a real situation. I will Ms. Walsh's example about her and her brother shared when they were younger. Ms. Walsh had remembered her brother falling down a rail and hurting himself while her brother remembered that there was a rock on the road and that's how he fell. By sharing out these experiences we are able to have a true sense of what are memories are. By sharing these two experiences Ms. Walsh and her brother were able to get a true sense of what really occurred that day.
ReplyDeleteChris N.
DeleteAccording to Freud, I agree with him. I can compare this my life when in the 11th grade i had a dream notebook for art. dreams are usually seen as un-needed information but since they are so rare to remember they are considered important and unique. I used to write down information in my notebook which allowed me to remember them more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Freud because whenever I have a random encounter with strangers or a random comment with friends, they'll always stay in the back of my mind and will affect how I live my daily life. Like when a stranger first gave me attitude for keeping my bookbag on the train and then after that, I always took my bookbag on when I get on a crowded train. Another example is from when a friend from freshman year told me I walked weird, and still to this day, I'm always really self conscious of how I walk.
ReplyDelete