Momentous Events Vivid Memories Author:David B. Pillemer David Pillemer extends the current study of narrative and specific memory. Drawing on a variety of evidence and methods—cognitive and developmental psychology, cross-cultural study, psychotherapy case studies, autobiographies and diaries—Pillemer elaborates on five themes: the function of memory; how children learn to con... more »struct and share personal memories; memory as a complex interactive system of image, emotion, and narrative; individual and group differences in memory function and performance; and how unique events linger in memory and influence lives. "Pillemer manages in this brilliant and elegant book to go from the quaintness of those highly personal and flashbulb memories we all have to an understanding of autobiographical memory in the large. The book combines the richness of real life with the rigor of laboratory study. In a way reminiscent of Bartlett's classic Remembering, it opens new vistas on the nature of memory." —Jerome Bruner, New York University "We all remember, of that there can be no doubt...However, there is another, more fundamental question: why do we remember at all?...For Pillemer, part of the answer lies in his suggestion that autobiographical memories and the ability to have them provide a certain sort of social intelligence that could not be delivered in any other way...Autobiographical memories are the things that ground the self, and they ground it in the past. The classification of memories in this book provides a thoughtful insight into how this grounding might take place." —Martin Conway, Nature« less