# Organic memory

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'''Organic memory''' is a discredited biological theory, held in the late nineteenth century before the rediscovery of [Mendelian genetics](/source/Mendelian_genetics). The theory held the controversial notion that all [organic matter](/source/organic_matter) contains [memory](/source/memory).<ref>Draaisma, Douwe. (2000). ''Metaphors of Memory: A History of Ideas about the Mind''. Cambridge University Press. p. 83. {{ISBN|0-521-65024-0}}</ref><ref>Anastasio, Thomas J; Ehrenberger, Kristen Ann; Watson, Patrick. (2012). ''Individual and Collective Memory Consolidation: Analogous Processes on Different Levels''. MIT Press. pp. 44-45. {{ISBN|978-0-262-01704-6}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Richard Semon.jpg|thumb|upright|The German biologist [Richard Semon](/source/Richard_Semon) linked organic memory to [heredity](/source/heredity).]]

German physiologist [Ewald Hering](/source/Ewald_Hering) first suggested the idea of organic memory in an 1870 lecture for the Imperial Academy of Science in [Vienna](/source/Vienna). Hering took influence from the idea of [inheritance of acquired characteristics](/source/inheritance_of_acquired_characteristics) and suggested that memories could be passed on through generations by [germ cell](/source/germ_cell)s.<ref>Stanley, Finger. (1994). ''Origins of Neuroscience: A History of Explorations Into Brain Function''. Oxford University Press. p. 338. {{ISBN|978-0-262-01704-6}}</ref>

Variants of the organic memory theory were proposed by advocates of [Lamarckian](/source/Lamarckism) evolution such as [Samuel Butler](/source/Samuel_Butler_(novelist)), [Ernst Haeckel](/source/Ernst_Haeckel), [Eugenio Rignano](/source/Eugenio_Rignano), [Théodule-Armand Ribot](/source/Th%C3%A9odule-Armand_Ribot) and [Richard Semon](/source/Richard_Semon).<ref>Otis, Laura. (1994). ''Organic Memory: History and the Body in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries''. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 10-34. {{ISBN|0-8032-3561-5}}</ref><ref>Akavia, Naamah. (2013). ''Subjectivity in Motion: Life, Art, and Movement in the Work of Hermann Rorschach''. Routledge. p. 44. {{ISBN|978-0-415-53623-3}}</ref><ref>Nikulin, Dmitri. (2015). ''Memory: A History''. Oxford University Press. p. 241. {{ISBN|978-0-19-979384-6}}</ref> Proponents such as Semon connected the theory of organic memory to [hereditary](/source/Heredity) phenomena.<ref>Schacter, Daniel L. (2001). ''Forgotten Ideas, Neglected Pioneers: Richard Semon and the Story of Memory''. Routledge. p. 108. {{ISBN|978-1-84169-052-0}}</ref>

According to historian Petteri Pietikainen:

<blockquote>Semon argued not only that information is encoded into memory and that there are 'memory traces' (engrams) or after-effects of stimulation that conserve the changes in the nervous system, he also contended that these changes in the brain (that is, engrams) are inherited. Semon's mneme-theory fell into disrepute largely because in a Lamarckian fashion it proposed that memory units are passed from one generation to another.<ref>Pietikainen, Petteri. (2007). ''Alchemists of Human Nature: Psychological Utopianism in Gross, Jung, Reich and Fromm''. Routledge. p. 100. {{ISBN|978-1-85196-923-4}}</ref></blockquote>

Ideas of organic memory were popular amongst [biologist](/source/biologist)s and [psychologist](/source/psychologist)s from 1870 to 1918. The theory later lost scientific legitimacy as it yielded no reliable data and advances in [genetics](/source/genetics) made the theory untenable.<ref>Landsberg, Alison. (2004). ''Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture''. Columbia University Press. p. 7. {{ISBN|978-0-231-12927-5}}</ref><ref>Richards, Graham. (2002). ''Putting Psychology in Its Place: A Critical Historical Overview''. Routledge. pp. 133-134. {{ISBN|1-84169-233-6}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Otis, Laura. (1994). ''Organic Memory: History and the Body in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries''. University of Nebraska Press. {{ISBN|0-8032-3561-5}}

Category:History of biology
Category:Lamarckism
Category:Memory
Category:Obsolete biology theories

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Organic memory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_memory) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_memory?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.