Memory as persona non grata in the work of Eugène Minkowski: a historical approach

Memory is both ubiquitous and persona non grata in the work of Eugène Minkowski. Despite the relevance of memory in the works of those who influenced him, in particular Bergson, Minkowski nonetheless repeatedly overlooked its importance in his writings. To the reader of his work this fact is as much evident as unaccounted for - both by prior research and by Minkowski himself. I shall try to prove that this disregard for memory was conditio sine qua non of Minkowski's first synthesis of Bleuler and Bergson in a 1921 article, which resulted in his famous concept of loss of vital contact with reality and which he equated with schizophrenia. Moreover, this historical approach will, on the one hand, explain the fragmentary use made by Minkowski of the philosophy of Bergson and, on the other, shed light on central aspects of his Le temps vécu of 1933 that an exclusively philosophical analysis cannot reveal.