The man who remembered everything knew the color, taste and shape of every word: Solomon Shereshevsky

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The number two was whitish for him, the nine was a stone with an angle, and everything he had ever seen and heard took its place in his memory forever. Solomon Shereshevsky was unique, thanks to which people in the modern world learn to remember and forget. And if in the first Shereshevsky there were no equal, then getting rid of memories remained difficult to implement.

How an unusual boy grew up in an ordinary intelligent family

Shereshevsky Solomon Veniaminovich was born in the city of Torzhok, Tver province in 1892. His family, Jewish, very religious, had nine children, Solomon was the second. After a while, the Shereshevskys moved to Lithuania, where his father opened a bookstore, his mother helped him in trade. Neither parents nor brothers and sisters were distinguished by any pronounced features, they had neither deviations, nor particularly bright abilities. Children grew up well-read, from an early age accustomed to following religious rituals, in particular, to saying prayers in Hebrew - for little Solomon this language was unfamiliar, and he remembered words without understanding the meaning. But the text of the prayer was associated with "puffs of steam and splashes" - and therefore, even after many years, he could repeat those words unmistakably.

Later, already becoming an adult, he will talk about his childhood memories - colors, sensations, sense of movement - all this he kept in memory from the age of one. Shereshevsky was not considered any outstanding student at school. His ability to memorize lessons, literary works remained unnoticed by teachers. At the same time, the boy received his musical education in the violin class - here he was recognized as a serious talent and predicted a successful future. After graduating from a music school, Solomon received an expensive handmade violin as a gift, but it did not take long to use it. Soon, the young man developed an illness that led to a complication - one ear stopped hearing. I had to part with plans for a musical career.

He entered the Faculty of Medicine of the Riga Polytechnic Institute, but dropped out - he had to work to support his family. Already at twenty-one, Shereshevsky became the father of a family, he married Aida Reinberg, a graduate of the Institute for Noble Maidens. The son Mikhail was born in marriage. I had to look for ways to earn money - and Solomon changed a variety of activities, he was a typesetter in a printing house and an insurance agent, wrote satirical poetry for various publications and played the piano in cinemas. But everything in his life changed dramatically when he came to work in the editorial office of the newspaper.

Unique ability to memorize and Shereshevsky's contribution to science

This was in 1929. During the meeting, the editor handed out, as usual, instructions to the employees, and drew attention to the fact that one of them, the new one, was too careless about the assignment - he did not write down a word, unlike the others. In response to the chief's remark, Shereshevsky said that he had no habit of writing down anything at all, since he could remember everything that was said and seen. Of course, the editor did not immediately believe such a statement, but, having subjected the reporter to several tests, he was convinced that in front of him was a person with unique abilities. He sent Solomon Shereshevsky to Alexander Luria.

He was a Soviet neuropathologist and psychologist, an active participant in the "Vygotsky circle", in the future - doctor of pedagogical and medical sciences, professor and academician, who made a huge contribution to the development of Russian psychological science. Shereshevsky's case aroused his great interest. When starting research, by his own admission, he could not expect that the work would cause him "".

Because it soon became clear that Shereshevsky's memory has no limits - neither in volume nor in duration. He remembered everything in general - he memorized long sequences of words. including not related to any general meaning or foreign, any sets of numbers and numbers. The first task was to memorize 50 words for 30 seconds, and Shereshevsky easily fulfilled this - and he kept this sequence in memory and later - as if he removed the information from where it can always be easily extracted. … After the death of Solomon, the scientist will publish "A small book about great memory", where he will describe Shereshevsky's phenomenal abilities and the history of their joint research.

Shereshevsky did not want to stay working in the newspaper, choosing a stage for himself - he performed throughout the Soviet Union, demonstrating his abilities. A career as a professional mnemonist brought money and fame. His main favorite audience were students, teachers and doctors - those who adopted Shereshevsky's skills for use in their own professional activities, because Solomon Veniaminovich himself actively studied the nature of his talent, formulating rules and methods that he himself used intuitively. For example, when memorizing a number of concepts, he mentally "arranged" their images along some well-known street - Moscow or Torzhok, and, thus, he could, "walking", remember the words in the right order.

Another phenomenal feature of Shereshevsky was discovered: Luria found out that the mnemonist has the ability to synesthesia - that is, "simultaneous sensation." Each word had for him gustatory, visual and tactile sensations - and tastes, sounds and images, in turn, evoked associations with words and concepts. This, on the one hand, made it possible to almost endlessly expand the possibilities of memorization, on the other hand, it hammered, overloaded Shereshevsky's feelings - relatives recalled that he even wrapped a spoon with a cloth so that the sound of its contact with the plate would not trigger the images associated with him.

What troubles turned into unique abilities of Shereshevsky

Perhaps the only thing that Shereshevsky did not remember well was human faces - too, in his words, changeable. As for the voices, they also associated in his brain with different images - visual, tactile - for example, like "". The brain, which stored all the information ever received, began to interfere with normal family life, communication with loved ones. Shereshevsky was extremely impractical, forgot how to delve into the essence of phenomena, and therefore faced the need to learn to forget.

It turned out to be much more difficult than memorizing, but sometimes I had to perform three times in one evening! Shereshevsky developed his own algorithms for "forgetting" information, also through images: for example, by writing information on a slate board and erasing it, or by burning paper with text. But all these methods were not very effective. The mnemonist, moreover, had a pronounced duality, traits of a split personality. He acted both as an actor participating in the action and as a spectator observing and remembering it. Luria described his penchant for dialogue between these different sides of the self. At the same time, Shereshevsky was not diagnosed with schizophrenic disorder, but for other researchers, in particular, Sergei Eisenstein, Solomon became an interesting object of observation, the director used the principles of interaction of these "I" and "he" in teaching actors.

Apparently, Shereshevsky's capabilities have not been fully explored. It is known that he could warm himself with the power of images, or drown out the pain. He practiced self-medication a lot, recording his observations of the effects of various herbs on the body. Of course, I wrote it down not for myself, there was no need for it, but in an effort to leave the information to others. The last public appearance of Solomon Shereshevsky took place in 1953 - already on the decline of interest in his abilities. He died of acute heart failure five years later. The Shereshevsky phenomenon is well known in the professional environment, but people who are far from psychology have paradoxically forgotten the name of this unique mnemonist. At the same time, numerous mnemonics used at the present time were either invented by Shereshevsky themselves, or created on the basis of studying his capabilities.

Read also - about the psychology of the future: Lev Vygotsky.