Chapter 8 In Vienna between 1934 and 1938

Abstract

§ 1. In conclusion, I comment on two features of my mental make-up of which I have been aware since my earliest youth. They concern my memory. Compared to most people of my acquaintance, I have a memory that normally is at most average in breadth and intensity – probably less than average. But during an experience that I feel may be potentially useful to me I resolve to remember what I am seeing or hearing or understanding and then this experience remains engraved in my mind with complete accuracy for decades, perhaps to the end of my life. I don't know how far I could extend this faculty, which I have never tried to abuse in the sense of trying to remember too much. Even so, occasionally trivia pop up with perfect clarity which, however, for some long forgotten reason, may at one time well have seemed to me worth remembering. But all in all I am well satisfied with my past selections. Most of what I resolved to remember I later actually found useful. This usefulness is enhanced by the second feature of my memory. Interesting reminiscences tend to return spontaneously at the very moment when they are relevant, that is, when they are connected with a current experience or the subject of my momentary thinking. ‘Connected’ here is meant in the broadest sense: in space and/or time, by similarity contrast, by analogy or by any of various other relationships. My memory thus is, on the one hand, strongly regulated as to its content and, on the other hand, largely spontaneous as to its reproductions. I don’t know how common these features are, but I suspect that the second is rarer than the first.

Citation

Becchio, G. (2009), "Chapter 8 In Vienna between 1934 and 1938", Becchio, G. (Ed.) Unexplored Dimensions: Karl Mengeron Economics and Philosophy (1923–1938) (Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 113-124. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-2134(2009)0000012016