Mind of a Mnemonist

A. R. Luria was Professor of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Jerome Bruner was University Professor at New York University.

• Foreword to the 1987 Edition Foreword to the First Edition Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Beginning of the Research 3. His Memory The Initial Facts Synesthesia Words and Images Difficulties Eidotechnique The Art Of Forgetting 4. His World People and Things Words 5. His Mind His Strong Points His Weak Points 6. His Control of Behavior The Objective Data A Pew Words About Magic 7. His Personality

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.