Final answer:
Forcing a community to carry shared memories could have a profound impact, potentially offering therapeutic value for individuals with memory-related disorders like PTSS. However, communal memories can also weigh heavily on all members, informing culture and emotions. Historical traumas become collective lessons that can lead to greater societal understanding and progress.
Step-by-step explanation:
If a community was forced to receive all of the memories of each of its members, the impact could be multidimensional. Each member's experiences, whether joyful or traumatic, would become shared knowledge. This collective awareness could potentially have therapeutic implications, especially for disorders where memory plays a crucial role, such as post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS). With the communal absorption of memories, individuals suffering from PTSS might find solace and understanding within the community, which could, in theory, support the healing process.
The quote 'They all succumb to it the neurotic temperament soonest, the phlegmatic one later-but they all succumb to it in the end,' suggests that the weight of memories within a given environment ultimately affects all individuals, which could point to the influential power of collective recollection. Memories tied to a location or community can have a strong psychic force; they can inform a community's culture and deeply affect its members' mental and emotional states.
In the context of historical trauma, shared memories, as depicted in the last reference to the faces of the dead occupying 'the whole winter, one borderless nation of snow,' show how collective memory can keep history's lessons alive. Remembering en masse allows communities to acknowledge and learn from past events, potentially leading to societal growth and the prevention of future atrocities.