screen memory
1
9.4
- noun
- /skriːn ˈmɛməri/
- Specialized
:
memoria de pantalla
- She realized that her cherished recollection of playing in the garden was actually a screen memory masking her childhood trauma.
Examples
-
The affectionate words the father whispers to his horse point to the latent content of the screen memory.
Academic text (1995) -
By hiding it behind a screen memory—the hanging of a young bandit—a memory that both masks and reveals the magnitude of the crime.
Academic text (1995) -
All memories are screen memories, and there's always more just under the surface.
Fiction book (1990) -
The dream sequence begins to reveal the true significance of the screen memory.
Academic text (1995) -
It is the father's betrayal, more than the rape itself, that is reflected, as we shall see, in the screen memory.
Academic text (1995) -
The cause of her mutilation has been masked behind a screen memory, the memory of the hanging of a young bandit witnessed by Marianna shortly after the rape.
Academic text (1995) -
Let us return for a moment to this screen memory, which serves to underscore, in its seemingly most insignificant details, the father's ultimate responsibility for Marianna's mutilation.
Academic text (1995) -
Many people have a screen memory of a happy family picnic that conceals a more painful event from their past.
-
During therapy, he discovered that his vivid dreams were just screen memories shielding him from distressing experiences.
How Distorted
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'screen' (to hide/shield) and 'memory' (recollection) can plausibly infer that a 'screen memory' is a memory that conceals something, so the basic compositional idea is accessible. However, the specific clinical nuance—that it is an imagined or distorted childhood recollection that masks a more significant emotional memory—is specialized and not fully predictable from the parts alone, so the item is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Screen memory comes from early psychology. Think of a screen like a curtain or movie screen that hides what is behind it, and a small, pleasant memory can stand in front and 'hide' a more painful event, so the phrase means a memory that covers up a deeper hurt.