THE MIND OF A MNEMONIST

LURIA, A.R.

ISBN 10: 0224615688 / ISBN 13: 9780224615686

Published by CAPE, LONDON, 1969

About this Item

BOUND IN PERFECT CANARY YELLOW CLOTH, THIS HARDCOVER FIRST ENGLISH EDITION IS VG IN VG JACKET(UNCLIPPED). THE LATE PROPERTY OF PROFESSOR MARGARET BODEN, SPECIALIST IN AI AT SUSSEX UNIVERITY, WHO HAS SIGNED ON THE FFEP. TRASLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN OF A.R. LURIA BY LYNN SOLOTAROFF. X1/160pp WITH FOREWORD BY JEROME S. BRUNER, INTRODUCTION, 7 CHAPTERS AND CLEAN ENDPAPERS. PROFESSOR LURIA DESCRIBES THE MIND OF A MAN ,PERFECTLY ORDINARY IN MOST WAYS, BUT WITH A PRODIGIOUS MEMORY CAPABLE OF MEMORISING BOOKS IN LANGUAGES HE DIDN'T KNOW. PROF. LURIA INVESTIGATED HOW THIS FACILITY AFFECTED HIS OTHER MENTAL PROCESSES , FOR EXAMPLE HOW TO FORGET WHAT HE NO LONGER WANTED TO REMEMBER. AT THE TIME OF WRITING ,THIS WAS THE ONLY COPY AVAILABLE.CONDITION VG/VG.

Seller Inventory # 002200366

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE MIND OF A MNEMONIST
• Publisher: CAPE, LONDON
• Publication Date: 1969
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224615688
• ISBN 13: 9780224615686
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The Mind of a Mnemonist is a rare phenomenon - a scientific study that transcends its data and, in the manner of the best fictional literature, fashions a portrait of an unforgettable human being."

Review

A welcome re-issue of an English translation of Alexander Luria's famous case-history of hypermnestic man. The study remains the classic paradigm of what Luria called 'romantic science, ' a genre characterized by individual portraiture based on an assessment of operative psychological processes. The opening section analyses in some detail the subject's extraordinary capacity for recall and demonstrates the association between the persistence of iconic memory and a highly developed synaesthesia. The remainder of the book deals with the subject's construction of the world, his mental strengths and weaknesses, his control of behaviour and his personality. The result is a contribution to literature as well as to science.

Luria's essay is a model of lucid presentation and is an altogether convincing description of a man whose whole personality and fate was conditioned by an intellectual idiosyncrasy.

A distinguished Soviet psychologist's study...İof a¨ young man who was discovered to have a literally limitless memory and eventually became a professional mnemonist. Experiments and interviews over the years showed that his memory was based on synesthesia (turning sounds into vivid visual imagery), that he could forget anything only by an act of will, that he solved problems in a peculiar crablike fashion that worked, and that he was handicapped intellectually because he could not make discriminations, and because every abstraction and idea immediately dissolved into an image for him. It is all fascinating and delightful.

A distinguished Soviet psychologist's study...[of a] young man who was discovered to have a literally limitless memory and eventually became a professional mnemonist. Experiments and interviews over the years showed that his memory was based on synesthesia (turning sounds into vivid visual imagery), that he could forget anything only by an act of will, that he solved problems in a peculiar crablike fashion that worked, and that he was handicapped intellectually because he could not make discriminations, and because every abstraction and idea immediately dissolved into an image for him. It is all fascinating and delightful.