The You Are What You Remember: A Pathbreaking Guide to Understanding and Interpreting Your Childhood Memories

In his first title available in English, French author and veteran psychotherapist Estrade approaches memories in a way he considers unique, except for ""certain aspects"" of Alfred Adler's 1928 book The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology. Estrade begins by asking readers to jot down three childhood memories, a task he regularly assigns patients on their first visit; from there, he treats memories similarly to Freud's treatment of dreams. The bulk of the book is a collection of anecdotes that illustrate Estrade's method of parsing ""latent"" from ""manifest"" content in patient's memories, helping them to reinterpret their memories and gain new insight into their lives: as with dreams, ""what may be insignificant for the conscious may have great significance for the unconscious."" He make several interesting contentions, among them that memories need not be true to be psychologically important; what matters is ""the feeling"" that a memory creates, for example when a child feels guilty over events outside of his or her control. Estrade discourages lay readers from attempting self-analysis, so this title should appeal primarily to mental health practitioners, though it could make an effective reference for therapy-goers.