Shereshevsky biography

Get one most read article once a day. Join us on Facebook and VKontakte. Subscription can be unsubscribed at any time. The deuce was whitish for him, the nine was a stone with an angle, and everything ever seen and heard forever occupied its place in his memory. Solomon Shereshevsky was a unique, thanks to which they learn to remember and forget in the modern world. And if in the first Shereshevsky there were no equal, then getting rid of the memories remained difficult.

As an unusual boy Shereshevsky Solomon Veniaminovich was born in the city of Torzhok Tver Province in the year in a regular intelligent family. In his family, Jewish, very religious, there were nine children, Solomon was the second. After some time, the Shereshevsky moved to Lithuania, there his father opened a bookstore, his mother helped him in trade. Neither parents nor brothers and sisters were distinguished by any pronounced features, they had neither deviations, nor especially vivid abilities.

The children grew up well -read, from an early age, accustoming to the following religious rituals, in particular, to pronounce prayers in Hebrew - for little Solomon this language was unfamiliar, and he remembered the words, not understanding the meaning. But the text of the prayer was associated with him with “steam and spray clubs” - and therefore even after many years he could accurately repeat those words.

Solomon Shereshevsky later, already becoming an adult, he will talk about his infant memories - color, sensation, feeling of movement - he kept all this in his memory from a year -old age. At school, Shereshevsky was not considered any outstanding student. His abilities to memorize lessons, literary works remained unreleased by teachers. At the same time, the boy received a musical education in the violin class - here he was recognized as a serious talent and predicted a successful future.

After graduating from the music school, Solomon received a hand -made expensive violin, but she had a short time to use it. Soon, the young man developed a disease that led to complication - one ear ceased to hear. I had to part with plans for a musical career. Torzhok, on the streets of which Shereshevsky would mentally “arrange” thousands of images at the medical faculty of the Riga Polytechnic Institute, but quit - it was necessary to work to support the family.

Already in twenty -one years, Sheleshevsky became the father of the family, he married Aida Reinberg, a graduate of the Institute of Noble Maidens. In marriage, the son of Mikhail was born. I had to look for ways to earn money - and Solomon changed the most diverse classes, he was a typesetter in the printing house and an insurance agent, wrote satirical poems for different publications and played piano in cinemas.

But everything in his life changed dramatically when he came to work in the newspaper. The unique ability to memorize and the contribution of Shereshevsky to science was in the year. During the glider, the editor gave out, as usual, the instructions to the employees, and drew attention to the fact that one of them, new, was too careless of the order - does not write a word, unlike the rest.

In response to the remark of the chief, Sheleshevsky said that he had no habit to record anything, because he could remember everything said and what he saw. Of course, the editor did not believe this statement immediately, but, having subjected the reporter to several tests, he was convinced: in front of him - a person with unique abilities. He directed Solomon Shereshevsky to Alexander Luria.

Alexander Luria was a Soviet neuropathologist and psychologist, an active participant in the “Vygotsky circle”, in the future-a doctor of pedagogical and medical sciences, a professor and academician, who made a huge contribution to the development of Russian psychological science. Shereshevsky’s case aroused his great interest. Starting to research, by his own admission, he could not expect that his work would cause him “a state of embarrassment and perplexity, this time not from the subject, but from the experimenter”.

He will then write about the Shereshevsky Lurie: “At the first acquaintance with Sh. He remembered everything at all - he remembered the long sequences of words.

The first task was to remember 50 words for 30 seconds, and Shereshevsky easily completed this - and he kept this sequence in his memory and later - as if he removed the information where it could always be easily removed. Shereshevsky will cooperate with a psychologist for several decades. After the death of Solomon, the scientist will release a “little book about the great memory”, where he will describe the phenomenal abilities of Shereshevsky and the history of their joint research.

Shereshevsky did not want to stay in the newspaper, choosing a scene for himself - he spoke throughout the Soviet Union, demonstrating his abilities. The career of a professional mnemonist brought money and glory. The main, beloved audience was students, teachers and doctors - those who adopted Shereshevsky’s skills for use in their own professional activities.Because Solomon Veniaminovich himself actively studied the nature of his talent, formulating the rules and methods that he himself used intuitively.

For example, when memorizing a number of concepts, he mentally “placed” their images along some well-known street-Moscow or Torzhkinskaya, and thus, “walking”, recall the words in the right order. All the information received by Shereshevsky was forever preserved in his memory and another phenomenal feature of Shereshevsky was revealed: Luria found out that the mnemonist has the ability to synesthesia - that is, “the simultaneous sensation”.

Each word had taste, visual and tactile sensations for him - and tastes, sounds and images, in turn, caused associations with words and concepts. This, on the one hand, made it possible to almost endlessly expand the possibilities of memorization, on the other - it hammered, overloaded the sensations of Shereshevsky - relatives recalled that even a spoon he wrapped a fabric so that the sound of its contact with a plate would not launch the images associated with it.

Sinestesia, the “color memory”, in the case of Sheleshevsky, united all five feelings what troubles turned the unique abilities of Shereshevsky, perhaps the only thing that Shereshevsky did not remember poorly, there were human faces - he said, in the words, changeable. As for the votes, they were also associated in his brain with different images - spectacular, tactile - for example, as “a flame with fibers protruding from it”.

The brain, which kept all the information ever received, began to interfere with normal life in the family, communicating with loved ones. Shereshevsky was extremely impractical, forgotten how to delve into the essence of the phenomena, and therefore faced the need to learn to forget. According to the stories of loved ones, they tried to persuade Shereshevsky to work in security agencies, but he refused it was much more difficult than remembering, but sometimes he had to perform three times in one evening!

Shereshevsky developed his own algorithms for “forgetting” information, also through images: for example, writing information on the neckboard and erasing it, or burning paper with the text. But all these methods were not very effective. The mnemonist, moreover, was pronounced by duality, the features of a split personality. He acted simultaneously the actor involved in the action, and the viewer observing him and memorizes him.

Luria described his tendency to dialogues between these different sides of the "I". At the same time, Shereshevsky was not diagnosed with schizophrenic disorder, but for other researchers, in particular, Sergei Eisenstein, Solomon became an interesting object of observation, the principles of the interaction of these “I” and “he” were used in teaching actors. Apparently, the capabilities of Sheleshevsky were never completely investigated.

It is known that he could warm up the power of images, or drown out the pain. He practiced a lot of self -medication, recording his observations of the influence of different herbs on the body. Of course, he wrote down, not for himself, there was no need for this - but trying to leave the information to others. The last performance in the public of Solomon Shereshevsky took place in the year - already on the decline in interest in his abilities.

He died of acute heart failure after five years. The phenomenon of Shereshevsky is well known in the professional environment, but the name of this unique mnemonist far from psychology in paradoxically turned out to be almost forgotten. At the same time, numerous mnemonics used at present are invented either by Shereshevsky themselves or created on the basis of the study of his capabilities.

Read also - about the psychology of the future: Leo Vygotsky. Did you like the article? Then support us, press:.