Abstract
In recent years, it has been a routine practice in the psychiatric and psychosomatic clinics and wards of the Cincinnati General Hospital to ask patients directly for their earliest childhood memories. It has been the writers' experience that—when the memories are analyzed within a psychoanalytic conceptual framework —they may provide meaningful information about unconscious conflicts, significant traumatic experiences in childhood, defenses against anxiety and transference reactions. Although such data can be obtained in other ways, it is often promptly available in the earliest memories and thus helpful in the early formulation of a case. Case material illustrating the utility of the earliest memory is presented.
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