Would you be willing to erase bad memories? Just wipe them off your hard drive?
What memories would you choose? The pain of injury? The pain of loss? Embarrassment? Failure?
Recently, there have been news reports about a pill that allegedly could erase or at least minimize painful memories. Amsterdam psychologist Merel Kindt presented research on the concept to the science journal Nature Neuroscience. Kindt and colleagues devised a test to see if they could interrupt the brain's ability to recreate a memory of a traumatic event.
As reported on MSNBC.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29284885/), sixty volunteers were shown pictures of spiders and given a mild electrical shock to create bad memories. The next day, they saw the pictures again but half were given the drug propranolol, a beta-blocker commonly used to treat heart disease. The other half took a placebo pill.
The participants returned a third day and were shown the pictures again. The researchers found that people given propranolol had a much lower emotional response — measured by a startle reflex — to the images.
An "eraser pill" seems like a much more pleasant experience than the one detailed in the 2004 movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." In that film, Kate Winslet's character undergoes an experimental electrical treatment to wipe out all memory of her turbulent relationship with Jim Carrey's Joel Barish. When he discovers this, Joel too demands to have the procedure so that he can forget the pain of love lost.
But a funny thing happens. The further Joel goes back in his memory, the more rediscovers the reasons and the feelings that made him fall in love in the first. place. And even without any guarantee that things could ever be made right for him and his ex-girlfriend, Joel begins to fight for his memories, good and bad.
To be clear: the Swedish researchers were not looking a magic pill to erase all bad memories. Their idea was to make them more manageable for people who suffer from paralyzing phobias or anxieties brought about by traumatic experience. They reasoned if the response to such memories were made more tolerable, the painful memory AND THE FEAR OF THAT pain would have less control over people's lives.
However, the headlines of most news stories touted "Memory Eraser Pill." The editors and producers knew their audiences would be captured by the idea of making bad memories -- and the bad feelings that accompany them -- disappear.
But what would life be like it we had the ability to erase painful memories? Would we ever learn from our mistakes? Would we ever truly appreciate the value of loyalty without knowing the pain of betrayal? The satisfaction of success without the sting of defeat? Could we learn empathy for the suffering of others without the knowledge that comes from our own suffering?
As a follow up to the "Eraser Pill" stories, the British newspaper The Daily Mail published a survey of five people and asked if they would take such a pill if it became available (http://tinyurl.com/c7bpml) I was stuck by the answers of two woman, both the survivors of horrific acts of cruelty.
The first had been brutally gang raped when she was in her 20's. "...[I]f I was offered the chance, would I erase that memory? Never." she said. "Truly awful as that experience was, it has made me who I am today — and while I don’t want to live with that memory, I don’t want to forget it either.
"Experiences shape who we are and who we become; even awful memories teach you things — to appreciate life and see different perspectives."
The second woman survived the 2002 night club bombings in Bali, which killed 202 people. Her take: "Part of someone’s personality is built on the strength of knowing that however bad something is, you can survive and that life goes on. Taking a pill would mean you never deal properly with something that has happened."
As much as we would like to be able to make bad memories disappear -- whether through electric therapy or pills or even a simple wish -- they are given to us for a reason. Even with their pain, they are perfect, for us to use as we see fit.
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2 comments:
Not to make fun of your very deep post, but after seeing the spider pic the first time, I'd have passed out, with no need for a second viewing.
You couldn't have passed out. Didn't you read? They would have shocked your butt with an electrical current. "You're going to look at this damn spider, B!"
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