The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book About a Vast Memory

Rating:
Summary: Effect of prodigious memory on personality
Review: Fascinating concept and much-heralded innovation in psychological analysis could have been woven into a classic but the result falls short. As a prior review points out quite helfpfully, S. (the subject of Luria's analysis) uses ancient mnemonic tecniques of which the author seems ignorant, although the most cursory research in the field of memory would have revealed them to him. Readers should not repeat Luria's error; read Frances Yates' "The Art of Memory" after finishing this book.

In addition, Luria relies far too often on the subject's self-description and analysis even in matters that could have been tested or at least observed. As a result, the impact of the subject's psychological condition on his day-to-day life is addressed but only descriptively; the subject is not brought to life or "humanized" as commentators claim. The subject could have written this book better himself.

Rating:
Summary: A readable book on a fascinating subject
Review: I first encountered the name of A.R. Luria in the works of neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, and am glad that several of Luria's works have been translated from Russian into English. The Mind of a Mnemonist is an insightful inquisition by Luria into a man he knew for several decades who had a literally limitless memory. The man - called 'S.' in the book - had an especially vivid synesthesia, whereby he converted what he saw or heard into vivid visual imagery, with powerful gustatory and auditory overtones as well. To forget things required an act of the will, and in some respects his prodigious memory was actually a hindrance for him. This short book is quite easy to read and fascinating enough to hold one's interest all the way through.

This book, Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (especially his chapter on "The Twins") or An Anthropologist on Mars (cf. the chapter "Prodigies"), and Donald Treffert's Extraordinary People: Understanding "Idiot Savants", all explore people whose memory is astonishingly accurate and sometimes limitless. These are fascinating and highly stimulating accounts that arouse our sense of wonder.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and Dull at the Same Time
Review: If you're looking for a good overall introduction to synesthesia, this isn't it. (For this, see Richard Cytowic's book entitled, Synesthesia.) On the other hand, if you're looking for a first-hand account of a famous psychologist's interaction with a synesthete, then you're in good shape with Luria's book. In the first half of The Mind of a Mnemonist, Luria describes how he first learned about "S", a young Russian news reporter with an amazing memory. He then describes in a fair amount of detail, often using S's own descriptions, how S experienced the world. He also gives a rather detailed account (again, often reproducing S's own testimony) of both how S went about memorizing and recalling so many items of data, and where the boundaries of S's memorizing abilities were (e.g., S had a hard time recounting the gist of a story he'd heard read aloud). Because of this, the first half of the book can at times be dull and repetitive.

In the second half of the book, Luria focuses on the effects that synesthesia had on S's personality and overall quality of life. Here's where it gets a bit more interesting, and a bit sad at the same time. S could remember in detail events dating from the first year of his life *and* how he felt at the time (could you imagine being able to remember in detail every mistake your parents made or how it made you feel, from infancy onward?!?). Moreover, the combining of senses made it difficult for him to do two things at once (e.g. he couldn't eat ice cream and read at the same time because the flavor of the ice cream would drown out the sense of the words). Still, even these chapters (i.e., chapter four, "his world" and chapter five, "his mind") get a bit tedious. The final chapters treat S's control of his behavior and his personality. S had a rather amazing ability to raise or lower his body temperature in a particular limb (e.g. his left or right arm), raise his heartbeat, decrease the pain he felt when under the dentist's drill, and the like. However, living with synesthesia caused him to be quite a dreamer, often unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

My guess is that psychology and psychiatry students with an interest in synesthesia will derive the most benefit from Luria's book. The rest of us are left with a rather mixed bag. Still, at just under 120 pages, The Mind of a Mnemonist doesn't require an enormous amount of time to read.

(On a bit of a side note, those who are curious about the real name of "S" can find it in the book...I don't know if they intended it to be there or not, but in one instance "S" divulges his identity.)

Rating:
Summary: S. Used the Ancient Art of Memory
Review: In 1969, I first read this little book about a vast memory when I was the memory fellow at the Neurological Institute of New York. I read it again today. Both times I had the feeling that Luria actually did not know of the Ancient Art of Memory and was unfamiliar with the techniques and the history of the visual mnemonics that underlie the memory skills demonstrated by subject S. Else how could Luria think that S.'s visual mnemonic skills were particular to him and worthy of such careful detailed study? Any veteran of multiple courses on memory including that given by Harry Lorayne will immediately recognize the methods and the power of the systems discussed in this book. The visual images that work the best are large, colored, unusual, in motion, violent, and linked to material already known. That's how S. did it and that's how you can do it too. Want to be a memory genius? This book is a good start.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting casestory.
Review: It is indeed a very interesting story of a man
with (apparently) a limitless memory. Where
vivid visual imagery helps him remember, but
handicaps him as well, as he (e.g.) can't
read a single line of text without evoking
a lot of images, somehow not singling out what
is most important in a sentence.
Images those provides both an obstacle and
an aid to learning. A sentence like
"the work goes under way normally" gets difficult
to grasp because each word produces a separate
image that distracts him - still he is a great
mnemonist because of these same powers to produce
images.
Enlightening. Still, there is a lot more to be
learned (and said) about memory
and how it actually works, than what is found here.
But it is a start.

-Simon

Rating:
Summary: Just one story
Review: One of the positive side-effects of Oliver Sacks is that he has called attention in America to the works of the great Soviet psychiatrist Aleksandr R. Luria, many of which have been translated from Russian into English.

"The Mind of a Mnemonist" is a slim book that tells the story of a man identified only as "S," whom Luria knew and worked with for decades, a man who literally could not forget. Like other such bottomless memories, "S" was a side-show curiosity whose ability was a burden as much as a gift. Luria details the difficulties "S" had in grappling with daily life, where thinking clearly depends so much upon forgetting the useless.

I have no idea whether Borges had ever seen this book when he wrote "Funes the Memorious," which is a wonderful fictional account of just such a mind.

The book also takes a fascinating detour into the condition that somehow gave "S" his powers, synesthesia. People with synesthesia can "hear" colors and "see" sounds. Smells have textures. Shapes have sounds. This seems to be a natural condition in infancy, but most people lose it, except for remnants of this when people talk about "warm" colors or "cold" sounds.

The composer Alexander Scriabin was among those who retained a complex synesthetic sensitivity into adulthood. S. was another. "What a crumbly, yellow voice you have," he told one psychologist. For him, numbers had personality: "5 is absolutely complete and takes the form of a cone or a tower -- something substantial. ... 8 somehow has a naive quality, it's milky blue like lime ...." And Luria gives this account of an experiment: "Presented with a tone pitched at 2,000 cycles per second and having an amplitude of 113 decibels, S. said: 'It looks something like fireworks tinged with a pink-red hue. The strip of color feels rough and unpleasant, and it has an ugly taste -- rather like that of a briny pickle ... You could hurt your hand on this.' "

Experiments were repeated over several days at the Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow, with dozens of tones, and the results were invariably the same. This synesthesia of sound is the essence of poetry, too. Dante divided words into "pexa et hirsuta," combed and unkempt (or "buttered and shaggy" in Ezra Pound's translation). S. used exactly the same words -- "prickly," or "smooth" -- for sounds, voices, words.

If you don't need one author to do all your thinking for you, if you can take what you read in one place and apply it to what you know from others, this book will expand your awareness of the human experience in an unforgettable way.

Rating:
Summary: In the annals of memory
Review: Referenced in numerous psychology and memory books is where persons might locate this book. The account of S. and his spectacular memory is almost legendary in the psychology, and memory community. This was my fortunate pleasure in locating the above reference in the following book: Your Memory How It Works and How To Improve It By Kenneth Higbee. A fine memory book. The Mind of a Mnemonist is not written as a fictional account of a person named "S". Non-fiction might be where the beauty lies. Aleksandr Romanovich Luria is a Russian psychologist. The mnemonist "S" is a Jewish man. S. is studied under a 30 year period. At the beginning of study, S. is under 30 yrs of age.
Luria catalogues his work very well. From the beginning of Luria's research then continuing to analyze S's memory then furthering to S's mind, behaviors, and then personality. Moreover, S. makes many of the comments of his own memory ability throughout this book. In analyzing S's memory, Luria leads the reader to deal with Synthesia of which S. possesses. This a integral part of S's phenomenal memory ability. S. would see splashes of color or puffs of steam regarding different sounds. In chapter 3 Luria conducted different sound tests of which analyzed S's Synthesia.
For more information regarding Synthesia, I would recommend Richard Cytowic's book "The Man Who Tasted Shapes". Luria also deals with S's ability to figure math problems. S has a great ability to easily solve certain math problems. His visualization capabilities are in high assistance with his ability here. Chapter 5 is most interesting: Luria comments on S's "Strong Points" and "Weak Points" regarding his memory. Strong points -as mentioned above- are his ability in visualizing math problems, visualization, graphic detail in story lines, and his efficiency ability. Weak points are S's reading ability. S. cannot read much material because words conjure up vivid images in which S. is forced to deal with. Abstract words, sentences, almost have no meaning to S. because of loss in the words meaning. Poetry was particularly difficult. "His control of his behavior" is another outstanding chapter by Luria. Luria comments on S's ability to control his body temperature by visualization. S. also has the ability to control his heartbeat by visualization. One of the most spectacular written accounts of which S. himself writes,"To me there's no great difference between the things I imagine an what exist in reality". This is a very powerful quotation and one can see what problems, or luxuries this may have. On one particular account, S. was supposed to wake up for school. He visualized the clock and reckoned there was more time before school. Then his mother is coming into the room and saying, "you haven't left yet". S's visualizations were completely real to himself. In addition, S. has graphic memories of infancy. I wanted to remark on some of the chapters and different subject areas in this book. As seen, there is a lot of fascinating work done here. What makes this book special is Aleksandr Romanovich Luria details, and allows S. to explain his own abilities. Many great memorists or savants in the past have seemed unable to accurately explain their memory technique. I have remarked on a few of the points in this book, there is much more.
The Mind of a Mnemonist is a fine example of a psychologist's account of memory ability and well written. I thank previous reviewers for there correct comments on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Exploration of the Human Mind
Review: This book is simply fascinating, and is really a seminal work that should be read by anyone interested in exploring the workings of the human mind.

Rating:
Summary: An Endless Abyss of Fascination
Review: This is a highly unique and true story about a remarkable man. S. (we never discover his true name) is a mnemonist, an individual with an apparently limitless memory capacity. The book chronicles the study of S. by Dr. Luria in Russia. Having found his subject's memory endless, He then studied the bizarre nature of S.'s memory, and the nature of S's thoughts and how all this affected S.'s life and personality. What we read about is an alien mind, filled with pictures, colors, clouds and tastes but often crowding out any kind of sense or meaning.

This is a very fascinating and original book, from beginning to end.

Rating:
Summary: Luria at his best
Review: You will never think about your mind the same way. A. R. Luria's most famous subject was a young Russian man whose talent in life was to be able to recall anything -- literally *anything* -- that he set his mind to remembering. His talent was prodigious, and we are fortunate that a researcher as talented and humane as Luria found and studied him. This resulting volume is a beautiful account of how his memory worked, of a doctor-patient relationship that spanned decades, and of how what appeared to be a gift turned out to be a curse.

A beautiful book.