IMAGINAL MEMORY: A STUDY OF PSYCHIC FORCES ASSOCIATED WITH THE PLACE OF HIROSHIMA: A CROSS-DISCIPLINARY STUDY IN ARCHETYPAL PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION

How can the place of Hiroshima be allowed a proper place in memory? This study proposes a way of remembering images associated with Hiroshima based on an ancient "art of memory" involving the formation of mnemonic figures and places in imagination. Particular nuclear images are explored and revealed as having archetypal significance for the present world, its suffering and peril. The placing of such images in memory gives effective place for moral and prudential concern in the nuclear world as awareness of its collective psychic dilemmas is deepened.;There follows a look at the psychic qualities of remembrances (both of actual bomb victims and of outside witnesses) of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then a practice is elaborated in which the individual, using the framework of the mnemonic art, places images associated with Hiroshima in memory. These images will be precise expressions of the psychic situation of the nuclear world and the individual's relation to it. This is shown through a psychological exploration of a number of examples of nuclear images.;The value of allowing a place for images of weakness, suffering and defeat--as against our culture's valuation of strength, health and victory--is stressed. Ultimate, this practice of memory signifies the remembering of the place of death in psychic life, as against our culture's quest for immortality through technological power.;In a variety of ways, the practice of memory elaborated in this study brings to the fore psychological features of our culture which must in some way suffer painful, 'nuclear' death if, in the long run, actual nuclear holocaust is to be avoided. The psychic forces associated with the place of Hiroshima must be given place in memory.;After an initial look at memory in relation to psychological aspects of the nuclear dilemma, this study considers images of memory which appear in ancient Greek myth and thought. Exploring this tradition fosters a critical perspective on memory: its various aspects (e.g., historical and mythic or archetypal), its relation with forgetting, and its selectivity. The art of memory itself, in its various forms ranging from the classical era to the late Renaissance, is then explored, acquainting the reader with a number of ways of placing mnemonic figures in imagination.