Douwe Draaisma (Nijverdal, 1953) graduated in psychology and philosophy at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He then moved on to the University of Utrecht, where he wrote a dissertation on the metaphorical nature of the language of memory, translated as Metaphors of Memory. A History of Ideas about the Mind, Cambridge University Press, 2000). After his return to the University of Groningen in 1993 he authored a monograph on neurological and psychiatric eponyms (Disturbances of the Mind, CUP, 2009). Starting with Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: How Memory Shapes Our Past (CUP, 2004), Draaisma wrote several books on autobiograhical memory, such as The Nostalgia Factory. Memory, Time, and Ageing (Yale University Press, 2013) and Forgetting: Myths, Perils and Compensations (Yale University Press, 2015). His latest book is The Dreamweaver (2013), a monograph on dreams and dreaming. Draaisma’s other main publications are on autism, William James, the history of time measurement, and history of neurology. His books on autobiographical memory won him several scientific and literary awards. Currently, Draaisma holds the Heymans Chair in the history of psychology at the University of Groningen.

Ever since 1992, his books appear at Historische Uitgeverij, Groningen, invariably designed by Rudo Hartman.