My conscious training in memory was at school, to pass tests, and the value was to get good marks in things I was told I needed to get good marks in, otherwise in the long term, my life would be a failure and in the short term, I would get punished.
The direct school experience was: 'I, your teacher, say this is this and that is that and they combine in such a way. The task was: when shown one part of that proposition, present the other parts of that proposition, or demonstrate you know that proposition by presenting responses which demonstrate its correct application.' Correct demonstration would return TICK, and incorrect, CROSS.
My unconscious training in memory was at home, where parental conflicts and inconsistencies meant it was safer for me to NOT remember, and to take as meaningless any direct statements of fact or intent.
The direct home experience was: 'I, your parent, say this is this and the other parent says this is something else but is wrong ... this is in fact this ... though it becomes something else according to how I feel. And how I feel is the result of your behaviour, the meaning of which will be determined according to what I want to demonstrate to the other parent, or according to how I feel'
At school I was being marked according my ability to do memory things which were, at home, impossible to achieve and dangerous to attempt.
My mad response was to seek to learn how to organize my 'forgetting' in the hope that I might achieve some of the results of people who seem to know what's going on. These days I remember patterns rather than specifics. For example, person's present specific statements are examined relative to the 'entire spread' of what I know of them. My memory then, is of the gestalt.
It's my best attempt so far for navigation through uncertainty, but comes with a heavy responsibility: It's important for me to remain sceptical or run the risk of mistaking a given present moment as 'sufficient proof' that a pattern is running, and thus to respond to the map in preference to the senses. My defence against irresponsibility is to try to enjoy that (pleasently or unpleasently) secure feeling of "Aha ... this fits with what I already know" but to use it as a wake-up call to insist that I remain curious in the now rather than complacent in my past.
I still go back to the house to check that I've locked the front door, even though I know that I did so. Good thing too, because I often find that what I know ... ain't so.
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