Mémoire et sens

Memory and meaning form an ensemble that gives body to subjectivity. They provide the full range of personal strategies, by organizing forms of life. They establish personality, validating or countering the choices made by individuals on the basis of experience, and they structure the lexicon of emotions through the interplay of different rites and social habits. Meaning and memory are co-determined and co-built throughout life. Meaning supports memory, and in return memory facilitates the access to meaning derived from the environment. The conditions that favor meaning facilitate the work of memory. The dynamics of the processes occurring between meaning and memory are discussed here. Three aspects will be considered, phenomenological, semiotic and neuropsychological, as well as the consequences of cognitive disorders on the interdependence of meaning and memory. The integrative model of memory and its relationship with the meaning given to the environment are presented in this article.