Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 15 Number 2, August 2014
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Van Campen, Cretien. The Proust Effect: The Senses as Doorways to Lost Memories. Transl. by Julian Ross. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press. 2014 179 pages; ISBN 978-0-19-968587-5. Ɫ19.99, hbk.
Reviewed by
University of South Florida
In his book The Proust Effect: The Senses as Doorways to Lost Memories, the Dutch researcher and writer Cretien van Campen explores sense memories based on the madeleine and similar incidents reported in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Proust has become very popular with reporters on developments in cognitive science, and van Campen is to be applauded for the fact that he more faithfully follows the exact nature of the event as described by Proust than most anyone else. He defines the experience more precisely, distinguishing it from other kinds of memory events, and examines it in its complexity rather than simply referring to it. He also does not lose sight of it as he goes quite far afield in his discussions, for example of synesthesia, but always comes back to it.
Van Campen distinguishes sense memories from data recollection (which has received the most attention from researchers) in that they are spontaneous and unexpected vs. being the result of conscious attempts at recollection, occur generally at moments of distraction or leisure, are exceedingly vivid—the sensations (smell, taste, touch, sight, sound [or qualia]) of the past incident are re-experienced in the present, and, even when recalling painful events, tend to ultimately bring a sense of joy and/or calm with them. Sense memories can be triggered by one sense but gradually bring others with them. It takes time for the experiencer to identify the underlying past event; the impressions arrive before the brain understands the context of the content. Sense memories also tend to be re-interpretations of the past, a re-mix of past elements.
As van Campen explains each of these aspects, he cites and evaluates numerous experiments to illustrate what we know about the human brain and how various parts of the brain interact to create these sense memories.
Van Campen also explores how artists, scientists, educators, and therapists have examined and exploited sense memories in their work. He provides a multitude of anecdotes and illustrations in each of these domains. He is especially interested in how these experiences enhance quality of life. Through these anecdotes, along with supporting research, he indicates that most sense experiences, which later become the source for sense memories, are laid down between the ages of 6 and 11 (a time when we seem most receptive to non-narratively organized impressions) with, of course, much variation between individuals, including a special time for music around the age of 16. The therapeutic effects of sense memories are seen in the elderly, including those with dementia, who also have lost much narrative ability. But not only the elderly. Sense memories also help younger adults cope with problems in their past. With that perspective, van Campen examines efforts being made to better enable children to lay down sense memories and other efforts to better enable adults to access them. In addition, van Campen examines the relation between these sense memories and aesthetic creation, which he sees as incorporating many similar elements.
Van Campen does a good job of detailing and isolating a particular and significant phenomenon to explore.
The publisher evidently put some effort into making the physical book a sensual experience as well. The pages are heavy and shiny, there are colored plates, and the book jacket is beautiful. However, unfortunately, the shininess of the pages sometimes creates a glare when one tries to read. The particular edition I have has uneven ink impressions on some pages, along with some slight smearing; I hope it is an exception. There were a number of awkward points in the translation (such as “The hippocampus of Proust” rather than “Proust’s hippocampus”), including incorrect subject/verb agreements. In one of the French quotes, the spell-check correction of the French “dont” into the English “don’t” wasn’t caught and corrected. Another French line is misquoted and yet another mistranslated. All of these things disrupted the pleasure of the physical book itself.
I would also dispute the last statement in the appendix, based on van Campen’s own arguments. He states that as a result of eating the madeleine dunked in the tea, “Marcel felt the same joy that was felt in the body of the young Marcel” (145). Van Campen states earlier that the joy comes from the recovery of the memory in the present-day Marcel, which is not to be confused with the experience of the younger Marcel in the past. This is also Proust’s point of view and is reinforced throughout van Campen’s book in his numerous anecdotes—which often portray calm after rediscovering a past traumatic event. The emotions felt in the past and the present are not the same. The taste and the odor are presumably the same, but not necessarily the emotions. This misstatement at the end is not representative of the book as a whole, which does a good job of relating the value of numerous studies for the general population and highlighting an area that deserves further research.