Memory's Fragile Power

Written in an engagingly anecdotal style, Searching for memory provides a review of recent, and not-so recent, research into memory, focusing particularly on the fallibility of memory. Subtitled "The brain, the mind, and the past" one might be forgiven for thinking that the book would deal with explanations at the level of neuroscience. In fact, with the exception of a brief foray into brain regions implicated in amnesia acquired as a result of brain damage (chapter five) the level of explanation used throughout the book is very firmly psychological, and written in a manner which is easily accessible to a general audience. This "popular science" style of the book, and the frequent references to depictions of memory and amnesia in the arts (out of thirty figures in the book, only four are technical pictures of the brain; the remaining twenty-six are artistic works) make the book very readable, but might persuade professional scientists working in this area that the book is unsuitable for them. This would be a shame since although it is true that the anecdotal evidence presented in this book does need to be viewed with some suspicion, especially when dealing with the contentious issues of false memory syndrome (chapter nine), psychogenic amnesia (chapter eight) and memory distortion (chapter four), none of the anecdotal evidence is put forward as anything more than suggestive. As it is, the book is wide-ranging enough to cover background material that will probably be new to both readerships. For the non-scientist there are overviews of areas of current scientific controversy within memory research, and for the scientific readership there are numerous allusions to artistic endeavours to portray the essentially subjective experience of