synesthesia and mnemonist and hypermnesia and peek

Our memories are like crystals, like light-absorbing substances which glisten and glow depending on the angle, intensity and persistence of light directed on them. Memories look different from different angles, and often mean different things to us at various times of our lives. Most people have such partial or limited recall that only a few events remain inveterately fixed. But memories only provide the first layer of our identity. We supplement the memories with interpretations, with construals of what it meant and means, and of how a particular event was related to other events from the past. In the "normal" individual, then, memory and interpretation play vital and balanced roles in allowing us the freedom to constitute our identity. People possessing hypermnesia, however, are those whose memory is so vital and vivid that they are overwhelmed by the fact of the memories, and their brains are only nurtured by mastering yet more data with which to deepen their factual acquaintance with things. Interpretive capabilities are absent or are so overwhelmed by the factual data mastery as to appear negligible. This essay explores how an ability and interest in attaining precision mastery of a wide variety of material may actually be more of a curse than a blessing in life. It is the former because it leads to misunderstanding, inability to function in the "normal" world and the constant sense of a lack of "fit" between the world and the self.

Getting the Language Straight

People often talk about those who have a "perfect" memory. The scientific name for this concept is "eidetic" memory, and those who are supposed to possess this capability are known as "eidetikers." The more popular designation of such a person is one who has a "photographic" memory. Whether or not many such people actually exist [one reader writes to tell me that they are not uncommon] there are many people who are called "mnemonists" or "savants," who demonstrate unusual abilities in recall of data they have learned. The concept of the "idiot savant" was popularized by Dustin Hoffman's portrait of such a person in the 1988 movie Rain Man. The individual portrayed by Hoffman was really a composite character, but the inspiration for it was Kim Peek (b. 1951). Peek's story has been written by his father, Fran Peek, in a 1996 book entitled The Real Rain Man. Fran Peek describes his son's abilities as follows:

"his knowledge-library includes World and American History, People and Leaders, Geography (roads and highways in U.S. and Canada), Professional Sports (baseball, basketball, football, Kentucky Derby winners etc), the Space Program, Movies and movie themes, Actors and Actresses, the Bible, Mormon Church Doctrine and History, Calendar Calculations (including a person's day of birth, present year's birthday, and the year and the date the person will turn 65 years old so he or she can retire), Literature/Authors, Shakespeare, Telephone Area Codes, major Zip Codes, all TV stations and their markets. He can identify most classical music compositions and tell the date the music was written and the composer's birth date and place of birth and death Kim has read (and can recall) some 7600 books. He also keeps current on world, U.S. and most local events by reading newspapers, magazines and by listening to the media. He reads constantly He can also describe the highways that go to a person's small town, the county, area code and zip code, television stations available in the town, who the person's pay their telephone bill to, and describe any historical events that may have occurred in their area. His expertise includes at least 14 subject areas."

A younger generation's Kim Peek is Daniel Trammet, born in 1979, who won the 2000 European "pi" contest, by reciting that number, over a several hour period, to 22514 places. Unlike Peek, however, Trammet is not seemingly disabled. He appeared on the Letterman show in 2005 and will, no doubt, become the subject of documentaries large and small in the future.

Synesthesia and Hypermnesia

But a highly developed memory can get in the way of living, too. The Russian psychologyist A. R. Luria describes the life of Solomon Veniaminovich Shereshevsky (The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory), and tells us that one of the key's to Shereshevsky's memory was the experience of synesthesia, where the stimulation of one sense leads to a perception in another sense. For example, when hearing a word, Shereshevsky would form a picture in his mind. Trammet has also said that each of the first 10,000 numbers creates a "picture" in his mind upon hearing the word. But, the problem is that whenever you hear a series of words, such a vivid cavalcade of images surfaces that you are incapacitated from doing "productive" work. As Luria said about Shereshevsky:

"His remarkable abilities were somewhat disabling. He was not able to read poetry or fiction easily, as each word or phrase would blossom into an intense visualization that might be contradicted by the next one... Shereshevsky's pathological memory interfered with his ability to hold a regular job, enjoy literature, or even seemingly to think in the abstract without being distracted by sensory association."

[Thank you to this excellent "answer" page for providing this quotation.]

Conclusion

What is interesting about Peek is the he has seemingly devoted concentrated attention to 14 areas of knowledge--to master them- while individuals like Shereshevsky would learn nonsense syllables, numbers without any connection with each other and other such "non-purposive" knowledge. I rather think, however, that the key to my own abilities with memory lies in their "Peek-like" character as well as with a facility with numbers (making dates and facts easy for me to retain). Interestingly enough, however, researchers still don't seem to be able to make heads nor tails regarding how memory works. Perhaps because we don't place much value on ability to memorize, the scientific establishment isn't that gung-ho on understanding the persons who do that work. Much more interesting are those who have a nose for entrepreneurial schemes to make money or even to improve human life. But the mnemonists go on, learning and internalizing loads of new data. More power to us.

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