"Eternal Sunshine" in a Pill

Adam Elenbaas
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We all have specific memories that haunt us, traumatic moments that linger throughout our lives. Often times we talk about healing the pain of past memories by doing the ghestalt work of integration -- whether its through therapy, using ayahuasca, soul recovery with a shaman, or ecstatic dance. For many of us, the realms of the past linger as phantoms in the present.

But recently researchers at New York University have demonstrated the ability to erase the memories of lab-rats through the administration of a drug called U0126. While the tests are a far cry from suggesting that specific human memories can be erased, they are hair-raising.

Are all human memories necessary for the integration of the self? Is the advancement of such research an indication of a psychic longing to forget ourselves?

Comments

makes you think

Submitted by Kal Cobalt on Thu, 09/27/2007 - 11:05.

The fiction writer in me wants to reverse-engineer this a little: if a crime is perpetrated upon someone but their memory of the act is subsequently removed, would that diminish one's ability to seek compensation for pain and suffering (assuming you had begun the legal process before forgetting the crime, I suppose)?

 

I also wonder whether "erase" is a wholly accurate word. Repressed or buried memories often have a palpable impact on other aspects of one's life. The article mentions "helping" PTSD victims by removing the traumatic memory. Would this leave a PTSD victim "cured," or unable to figure out why they have nightmares about trucks since they no longer remember that they were hit by one?

 

As for whether all memories are necessary for self-integration, I would say so. What are we if not a reaction to everything in our lives that has come before this moment?

I agree with you Kal--I felt

Submitted by Adam Elenbaas on Thu, 09/27/2007 - 11:08.
I agree with you Kal--I felt a bit befuddled on which angle to take with this particular piece. It really does provoke a myriad of interesting perceptions. I agree--I think that all memories are necessary, and I recoil at the idea of erasing memories...just like Jim Carrey eventually does in the film! Adam Elenbaas

Indeed

Submitted by Kal Cobalt on Thu, 09/27/2007 - 12:22.

Indeed. This topic has woken up old questions of mine about what it means to be such integrated physical/mental beings. Something wholly physical/chemical, such as this drug, can impact something as nebulous and crucial as our very memories. And with all the research just beginning to prove the effect of positive thought upon the ill -- not to mention the old trope of the mom suddenly able to lift a car when it's her son trapped beneath it -- it would appear that something wholly mental can affect us physically as well.

 

I've always felt that there's some huge, cosmic hint in that level of integration which we have failed as yet to fully recognize.