Dr. Walt Menninger, who harbored an early interest in journalism, said he remembered learning about William Allen White in high school and college.
“I always had a special respect for William Allen White and The Emporia Gazette,” Menninger recalled before launching into his presentation, “Memory and History, Remembering It Like It Wasn’t,” at a fundraising dinner for the William Allen White State Historic Site on Saturday evening in the Granada Theatre.
Menninger, whose grandfather, father and uncle founded the renowned Menninger Clinic in Topeka, became president and CEO of the clinic in 1993; he resigned as chairman and became chairman of the Menninger Trustees in 2001.
Among numerous other affiliations, Menninger was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to a 13-member National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. He has been psychiatric consultant to the Topeka Police Department and has been consultant for the U.S. Secret Service, Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center, Stormont-Vail Regional Medical CareSystems, and others. He was the first psychiatrist to be named to a national investigatory commission by a U.S. president, according to biographical information.
Menninger’s presentation involved a variety of types of memories, all potentially affected by subjectivity and selection according to circumstances.
Memory can be simple and concise — such as Menninger’s recollection of an interest in journalism that was surpassed only by his commitment to becoming a psychiatrist — or convoluted into an account shaped by needs of the individual, who may choose to eliminate or enhance actions in ways that flatter their own behavior. And the details may not be truly remembered.
“Memory is not so much like reading a book as it is like writing one from fragments,” Menninger said. “...As time goes by, details get lost.”
Menninger talked about the memories of John Dean, whose 245-page statement in June 1973 gave specific details surrounding the Watergate break-in and the subsequent meetings and discussions among former President Richard M. Nixon, Dean, and other White House staff members.
Dean was confident his memories and his statement were accurate: Nixon had complimented him on his handling of the situation, Haldeman had kept him apprised of what was happening in the investigation and Dean himself had warned the President that the Watergate investigation could expand, among other memories.
Then, tape recordings were released of the conversations Dean believed he remembered so vividly and accurately.
“Hardly a word of Dean’s testimonial account is true,” Menninger said, ticking through the contradictions recorded on the tape. Haldeman did not keep Dean informed about what was going on, the president had not praised Dean’s work, there was no sit-down meeting as Dean described.
“So his account is plausible, but it was entirely incorrect,” Menninger said.
Dean’s memory — the “meeting fantasy” — was one of “what should have been.”
“The key to understanding this phenomenon is wishful thinking,” he said.
Older people often mold their memories to fit their own images of self, or how they want to be perceived.
“People for one reason or other don’t want to hear it like it is, they want to hear it like they want it to be,” Menninger said. “We’re often threatened by the truth about ourselves. ...What you remember is consistently what should have happened, in light of your own self-protection.”
Long-term memory may reflect a tendency “to see one’s self as a hero of a drama worth telling,” he said. It may become a positive affirmation of a life well-lived through “mythisizing.”
“In this sense, the past becomes more real and more poignant,” Menninger said. “Our memories recreate a past that justifies our self-esteem. We seek to order our universe. We are inconsistent and self-serving, even with the best intentions.”
Humans also tend to recall details of the past in terms of what is important in their current lives.
Menninger described a study done on a group of students, who provided details of their lives and what was important to them at the time the study was done.
Thirty years later, those same students’ memories of that past were tested and compared to their previous answers. The memories that coincided with their current views could be recalled. Other memories had slipped away.
One student had been conservative, and had gone to church four times a week. Thirty years later, he had given up church altogether and no longer remembered a time when he had been so devoted, Menninger said.
Another had placed third of 50 people in a competition; in later years, he remembered he had placed second out of 900 competitors.
“Maturation makes liars of us all,” Menninger said.
Menninger referred to research by memory expert Elizabeth F. Loftus, who is the author of numerous articles and books about memory and, in particular, false memory.
Her research results present a distaff side to “repressed memory,” in which, for example, adults who did not remember being abused as children may claim that memories of abuse have surfaced.
“Loftus has found that memories don’t just fade as they would have us believe. They actually grow.”
Subtle suggestions from law enforcement officers can sway witnesses to “remember” information.
“There are many, many instances where eyewitness testimony is false,” he said.
Humans also carry emotional memories of things they have lived through at ages too young to actually remember or to interpret the incidents accurately.
Menninger talked about his daughter, who was 2 1/2 years old when her 4-month-old sibling died from sudden infant death syndrome.
“The girl who was 2 1/2 is now a neo-natalogist ... whose goal is to keep little bitty babies from dying like her sister did,” Menninger said.
Though she could not recall the baby’s death, the tragedy implanted itself on the toddler’s emotional memory.
“It profoundly affected her life,” he said.