Proust's Contribution to the Psychology of Memory

Abstract

The work of Proust is generally considered to be a major contribution to the psychology of memory. However, there has been no recent evaluation of this contribution from the standpoint of the cognitive sciences. In this article, I examined the scientific status of the reminiscences, this form of retrieval being illustrated by the famous episode of the petite madeleine. It appears that the réminiscences have a place in the taxonomy of the normal memory: they are a form of cued retrieval of explicit memory, characterized by an episodic content where the spatial component of the context is particularly important. Current interpretations in terms of affective or unconscious memory do not seem to be well grounded. The description of the réminiscences cannot be taken at face value for it is subordinate to a philosophy of art which is the main purpose of À la recherche du temps perdu.