Reboot your memory

[not sure]

The Man With No Past | DocumentaryStorm - Stream Full Documentaries

The above is a link to a three-part documentary about a man who suffered from psychogenic fugue, a complete loss of his emotional memory. His physical memory remained so he knew how to speak, walk, play sports and so on.

I found it quite interesting since I've often thought I would like to reboot my own memory. Perhaps, I thought I could see the world with fresh eyes. On the other hand, other people think the idea is terrifying. What are your thoughts? Would you want to reboot your memory? Also, does the documentary stir any other related ideas in you? Please discuss those too.

 

[Gaze]

I think you lose a part of yourself - your identity when you lose your emotional memory, your feelings about an experience, how it affected you, and why. All that shapes who you are and how you respond to future situations. So, it would be a loss.

 

[not sure]

I think you lose a part of yourself - your identity when you lose your emotional memory, your feelings about an experience, how it affected you, and why. All that shapes who you are and how you respond to future situations. So, it would be a loss.

Yes, that is true. Did you watch the documentary? I thought it was interesting because that is what that man felt at first. He felt that he had lost his life along with his memory but eventually his feelings on that changed. He began to see it as an opportunity to start fresh and experience life to the fullest.

What I find interesting about an emotional memory reboot as an adult is that you have the skills for adulthood without the emotional baggage coming from childhood. Imagine that. No bad habits developed in reaction to hurtful experiences. Instead, you have a blank slate and an opportunity to deal with situations with an adult mind without repressed feelings and memories interfering. I find that absolutely fascinating and agree with him that it is an amazing opportunity.

 

[Gaze]

Yes, that is true. Did you watch the documentary? I thought it was interesting because that is what that man felt at first. He felt that he had lost his life along with his memory but eventually his feelings on that changed. He began to see it as an opportunity to start fresh and experience life to the fullest.

What I find interesting about an emotional memory reboot as an adult is that you have the skills for adulthood without the emotional baggage coming from childhood. Imagine that. No bad habits developed in reaction to hurtful experiences. Instead, you have a blank slate and an opportunity to deal with situations with an adult mind without repressed feelings and memories interfering. I find that absolutely fascinating and agree with him that it is an amazing opportunity.

yeah, a reboot would be nice, but I think you lose life lessons you would've learned along the way. And actually, I don't you have a more adult mind. The development of the mind involves going through stages of growth and experiences from childhood to adulthood. So, the "adults" we are today wouldn't really exist without having gone through the learning experiences of childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood.

Development is never simply mental, intellectual, or physical. It is emotional and psychological.

 

[Stu]

I found this article significant in that the suppression of the meaning of a memory was more possible than eliminating the memory itself.



http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/03/160126283/can-we-learn-to-forget-our-memories

'A Significant Forgetting Effect'

At the end of this process, the subjects were tested to see if there was a change in what they recalled. And there was – in the memories that had been repeatedly blocked.
"There was a significant forgetting effect, about a 12 percent drop in the level of details recalled," MacLeod says. "That's a large effect."
What's interesting, though, is which part of the memories were forgotten.
To understand, consider the following transcript that was given to me by Noreen, which is based on one of the actual memories in the study. It involves a girl getting a new pair of very short pants from her mother.

The cause of the event was me wearing a new pair of trousers that my mom had bought for me for secondary school when I first started. The consequence of the event was that at lunch time when I went to the bathroom an older girl started making fun of me for having short trousers. It was the first time I felt uncomfortable with what I was wearing. It made me feel very self conscious and I hated that.
​

That was the original memory, but after blocking this memory again and again, certain details began to fall away. It's not that she forgot what happened, Noreen says, instead, she began to lose the personal meaning associated with that memory.
"The fact that she said, 'It was the first time I felt uncomfortable with what I was wearing,' and also she forgot that she said that it made her feel very self-conscious and she hated that," Noreen says.
Essentially the blocking caused her to lose the fact that it was emotionally painful, which, Noreen says, is what they consistently found. In general, people didn't forget the facts; they forgot how those facts made them feel – the meaning of the facts.

Personally I find that the feelings around a memory are way more poignant then the facts, (which I tend to obscure)

 

[Nixie]

Kiu I miss her still

 

[Kgal]

I found this article significant in that the suppression of the meaning of a memory was more possible than eliminating the memory itself.



http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/03/160126283/can-we-learn-to-forget-our-memories




Personally I find that the feelings around a memory are way more poignant then the facts, (which I tend to obscure)

They are!. That's why we remember the memory. The emotions attached to the memory are usually strong enough to help us find that memory when we want to - or - even when we don't.

This research is ....hmmm..... makes me think of "obfuscation".

 

[Kgal]

Kiu I miss her still

Me too. I was just thinking of her the other day. I downloaded some music she posted and I still dance to it.