@nina_kali_nina I'll have to give your article a closer reading when I'm done with work, but I think you might find Lynda Barry's writings on teaching STEM college students how to draw again (and unlearn their trained fear of it) an interesting contrast to Betty Edwards's book.
In particular, the part you mention about drawing from memory to surface symbols is a common thread between the two, but it seems the two authors have very different conclusions about what the value of those symbols are.