The Authors, starting from Freud’s Wunderblock, discuss what could be considered as mnestic traces according to recent data provided by neurosciences and what differences can be identified between these and the memory. They go into details about the impossibility of having memories referred to traumatic circumstances that, perceived and memorized, aren’t remembered as experience of Self. According to this, the compulsion to repeat the trauma may be considered an impossibility to remember, and therefore repeated perception, and must be recognized and worked over in transference. A clinical example is discussed.
Keywords: Memory, mnestic traces, trauma, primal repression, basic mental organization, integration