Topographies of the body-and-mind: Skin Ego, Body Ego, and the film ‘Memento’

Abstract

This paper explores the various techniques of memory formation and storage depicted in the film Memento (2000). In particular, these are Polaroid pictures, Post-it stickers, a map and skin tattoos. To understand the use of these techniques, this paper deploys the concepts of Body Ego, drawn from Freud, and Skin Ego, drawn from Anzieu. This paper thereby not only discloses the complex organization of space and time in the formation and storage of memories, it also necessitates a reconsideration of the spaces and times of subjectivity.