The Memory Triggering Book [Paperback]

Robert M. Wendlinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1995

"The Memory Triggering Book" is a unique and authoritative guide for going back in personal time to find memories that enrich, hearten and heal. Containing dozens of original and gentle tools and techniques that will trigger forgotten memories and insights about people, events, and places of one's past, the book also provides creative ways of organizing including the memories in scrapbooks, memoirs, autobiographies, family legacies, or self-enrichment programs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"No, it's not a guide to remembering names at a cocktail party or playing Trivial Pursuit or remembering your spouse's birthday. In fact, this absorbing and surprisingly ubiquitous probes more deeply into memory and psyche by helping readers identify and utilize those triggers that inspire the mind's sudden return to past events, like the burst of memory that overcame Marcel Proust with the first bite of his famous madeleine cookies (hence the publisher's name).

"Now Oakland communications consultant Wendlinger says we can actively call up, orchestrate and put to practical use those memories that we have heretofore come to use accidentally, as when we suddenly smell baking bread or hear an old song or feel the texture of, say, a dog's coat or favorite blanket. He shows us how to isolate these triggers by mapping our old neighborhood or school or bedroom or kitchen with sensual memories that we can code and later use. . . ." -- San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday Book Review, March 17, 1996, by Patricia Holt, Book Review Editor

"This book will help you go back as far as your early childhood. Use it to remember details for the most important part of your scrapbooking pages - photo journaling. It's also a great tool to assist you in writing your life story, especially when photos don't exist for certain chapters of your life. . . ." -- Creating Keepsakes Magazine, Jan/Feb 1998

About the Author

Bob Wendlinger has counseled individuals and conducted workshops in memory triggering for more than ten years. Earlier, he had a long and successful career improving communications within various multinational organizations; directing a worldwide employee communications department at Bank of America, San Francisco; and leading his own communications consulting firm. He has also been an adjunct professor of communications in the MBA program at St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA. In addition to writing "The Memory Triggering Book," Bob Wendlinger co-authored "Effective Letters," a best-selling McGraw-Hill business book, and contributed to the McGraw-Hill "Encyclopedia of Professional Management." His professional biography appears in "Who's Who in America."

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Proust Press (December 1, 1995)
• ISBN-10: 0964991004
• ISBN-13: 978-0964991002
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,108,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Memoir writer says book has been powerfully helpful, May 14, 2000

By 

Elizabeth E. Raymer, M.A., M.F.T (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory Triggering Book (Paperback)

I am a psychotherapist and have given some of the exercises to clients to help them recapture memories. As I writer of autobiographical short stories, I find Wendlinger's book very helpful when I am stuck. Retrieval of one memory image evokes many more and I am on my way again. This would also be a very useful book for seniors who are writing about their lives.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for those who wish they'd kept a journal!, July 30, 2001

By 

"triggerer" (Inverness, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory Triggering Book (Paperback)

When my mother died four years ago at age 93, she took with her a treasure: memories of her childhood, five sisters growing up on a succession of farms in Iowa, Minnesota and California as their immigrant parents struggled to succeed in America. My father died much earlier, and he, too, took with him a treasure of memories.

My three siblings and I have only snapshots of their lives - no more satisfying than a few stills from a great movie. The same is true of my wife's parents. They came to America from Scotland early in the last century. Except for vignettes, we know little of their experiences. How we wish we had prompted our parents to record their memories for the benefit not only of us and our siblings, but also for our adult children and especially our grandchildren - who are now old enough to be curious about life before computers and television (not to mention cars, telephones, and electric lights!)

However, I doubt that talking with them from time to time, notebook or tape recorder in hand, would have been very successful. What is needed is a process, a blueprint to follow such as provided in this book. Memories can't be forced. A few years ago my teen-age granddaughter called with a school assignment: a series of questions about my early life - growing up in the Depression, WWII military service, etc. I did the best I could, but I'm certain my spur-of-the-moment responses were not exactly what her teacher was expecting, or hoped for.

"The Memory Triggering Book" is perfect for those who wish they'd kept a journal. It provides a method of constructing that journal in retrospect - creating a treasure for those in succeeding generations who care, if not now then surely in the future.

Memory triggering as guided in this book has at least two virtues: enhancing one's own life through systematic retrospection, and enhancing the lives of those who follow by providing insights into the lives of their forebears. My emphasis is on the latter, but in so doing the former comes into surprising focus.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Help for Writers, March 16, 2000

By 

Richard Moore (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory Triggering Book (Paperback)

This is a special, one of a kind, book. It was great fun just to browse through the sample memories the author and others have provided to illustrate each excersize. The excersises themselves were incredibly evocative. This book is probably intended primarily as a stimulus to sharing among family and friends; I may bring it out after Thanksgiving dinner next year. However, the main benefit for me has been to enrich my autobiographical writing. It's hard for me to imagine anyone's memory being blocked after dipping into almost any section of this book. For some this book may become a family keepsake full of handwritten annotations by various family members. Right now, my copy goes on the shelf next to my Roget's and my Webster's. I definitely recommend it.