ADSactly Life: The convenience of losing memory

in #life5 years ago


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The convenience of losing memory

Hello, friends of @adsactly

It is not a secret that it is currently highly overrated to have memory. The more room a device has to store information, the more expensive and better it is. The same applies to people: any illness that degenerates our ability to store information is a life or death alert.

Recently, I was reading an article about memory loss. In this text the case of a man who, after having been in a coma for 15 years, wakes up one day and does not know anyone, especially his wife and children, is reviewed. This article speculates, based on several scientific studies, the need for human beings to forget some traumatic events in order to continue living. Apparently, the brain, in a natural way, activates mechanisms to "reset" itself, as a form of help or consolation in the face of some unpleasant events.


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So we can say that, at some point, according to this article, oblivion can be a defense mechanism. Many times the process of overcoming traumas and bad moments has to do with forgetting. That is why erasing negative aspects of the past from our memory is not something bad, but quite the opposite. That's when I read that the secret to happiness lies in having good health and a very bad memory. There will be some truth in this sentence.

Continuing with the article, the author informs us that the man, after having fought with his partner and having asked for a divorce, had a car accident. The man was taken to the hospital and spent 15 years there in a vegetable state, to then wake up and not know anyone. This type of pathology is clearly identified and is called dissociative amnesia, also known as functional amnesia or psychogenic amnesia. According to Wikipedia, it is a "dissociative disorder characterized by a weak loss of memory, caused by an intense episode of psychological stress, and which cannot be attributed to neurobiological causes".


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Apparently, anyone can "unconsciously" erase passages in their life that may be negative for them. Hence, we may think that we have a selective memory, which is capable of retaining only that which interests it or is beneficial. In fact, in the article they give as an example, how sometimes we can forget what we did yesterday, but we vividly remember what we did several years ago only because memory is positive or produces happiness. Likewise, when we talk about selective memory, we infer that in that selection we have to see how deep the memories were stored in our mind in order to remember them perfectly.

According to specialists, when we remember something, we are not like a device that reproduces the way things happened. Our memory is not a video or photographic machine. When we remember, we do not reproduce exactly, but we manage to construct and reconstruct what we have lived. In other words, we continually mold or deform our memories. Our emotional state, our feelings, the cultural context in which we live, influence the moment of remembering. We evoke according to what we lived, how transcendental it was for us, and how we lived it.


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Obviously, the article also indicates that for an event to be remembered it is necessary that our levels of attention and perception function optimally because otherwise information about what happened will be lost. That's why we can say that even if you're very euphoric at a party or you've had a good time at a meeting, if you weren't attentive to events, it's normal that you don't remember much of what happened.

Also, the article suggests that although we say that we forget involuntarily and that there is no greater responsibility in us, it seems that yes. People induce forgetting by not repeating memories or what is worse, by not being attentive to what happens to us, is presented to us or we live. In any case, everyone agrees that, if it were an electronic device, forgetting is necessary to optimize the brain's energy consumption.


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In these days, by one of those coincidences that life gives you to put yourself to the test if you deserve heaven, I met a friend who is a militant of the governing party of Venezuela, who even occupied political positions of great importance in the state where I live. Since the meeting took place in a clinic, the first thing I asked her about was her health and she told me that she had certain problems. To say that and begin to speak ill of the Venezuelan government was the same thing. Stupefied, I thought if that friend had suffered from amnesia or had mental gaps, because as far as I remembered, she had not only supported Chavez but had been a participant in this disaster called the Bolivarian Revolution. But no, my friend had gone to the clinic because she had problems with her throat.

In Venezuela, when someone asks you something and you answer them with something else or you make yourself misunderstood, people say that "he went crazy". Maybe acting crazy is good many times, becoming amnesic, forgetting everything. Perhaps it is necessary to forget in order to continue living, so as not to go with heavy burdens and especially to talk to friends who once defended the devil and now do not want to burn in hell.


I hope you enjoyed the reading. I remind you that you can vote for @adsactly as a witness and join our server in discord. Until a next smile. ;)

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCE

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/03/150316_salud_memoria_ventajas_olvidar_empatizar_amv
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesia_disociativa

Written by: @nancybriti



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Memory (and what it implies: memory, forgetting, etc.) is a subject that I consider very important and attractive. I leave out the memory of data, which although it is necessary to cultivate, today, thanks to internet and other technological mechanisms, we can attend. I am interested in the other one, that of experience. Freud had already recognized that there is a necessary relationship of mutual support between memory and oblivion, as points. And other scholars, that our memory is anthological (what would be called "selective"). Our current memory capacity is adversely affected by the lack of attention, of concentration, that the accelerated and saturated world we live in provokes.
The memory that most interests me would be the affective or inner memory, the one that Proust knew how to capture in his great work In search of lost time. I always quote Rilke, when the narrator of his peculiar novel The Notebooks of Malte Lauris Bridge in a moment talking about the poetic process, says that to produce good poetry it is necessary to have diverse experiences, but also to have memories. But then he says, "And it's not enough to have memories either. You have to know how to forget them when there are many, and you have to have the patience to wait for them to come back.
I skip the considerations about voluntary amnesia, especially in politics.
Thank you for your good post, @nancybriti.

Beautiful quote from Rilke, @josemalavem. I also believe in the necessary relationship between oblivion and memory, especially in this time when this dichotomy is made to grow, mature, turn and write new pages. Thank you for your comment

Grateful if we can forget the bad things that can haunt ourselves. we can feel more free from the fear of the past. Because if we are shackled by prolonged guilt will also make us unable to become advanced individuals. We will always be overshadowed by various past events even though it would be better if we could make peace with the past and immediately open a new page of life free from the trauma of trauma.However, we can also take lessons from each event as a consideration for each step in the future.
But unfortunately, many perpetrators of crimes while in court then pretended to forget to avoid the snares of the law
thank you @nancybriti
Thank you @adsactly
Thank you Steemit
Warm regard from Indonesia

Although I must admit that I don't know the mechanisms that work in the brain, it must be interesting to know how we forget some traumatic events and others not. That mental selection that memory makes is fundamental to unravel the secret behind oblivion. Greetings

agree, just cant remember why

Great post. It touches several sensitive issues.
It is true memory can be a tricky thing. We want to think that we can be objective when we have lived or witnessed an event, but the fact is that our recollection of the event can be very subjective.
It is common to hear two witnesses say, that's not how I remember it.
It goes beyong making things up or lying.
I have a friend who has a prodigious memory. I usually call him to remind myself of hings I did, saw or said because I tend to forget details.
As for the political implications of this selective amnesia, we'll be seeing mre of that in chavistas who will be so ashamed of what they did or so fearful of the consquences that they will forget they ever supported this mess.
Worse yet, many of those who have suffered will forget and forgive

I also have a very bad memory, a characteristic that has saved me on some occasions, but has also made me look bad. The Venezuelan, unfortunately, has a very bad memory, especially in politics, so we are destined to make the same mistakes over and over again. So much so that I would not be surprised if, when this tragedy is over, there are people who say that they lived happily. Thank you for commenting, @hlezama.

Muy interesante tu post, estaría incluido el alcohol, porque uno olvidad, nos reduce la capacidad consciente para recordar.

Yes, so even though we have a good time, if we drink alcohol, we may not remember what we did and how we had a good time. It works as a good mechanism for erasing memories. Greetings

Memory is key to some one's destiny

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That's right! Not only the individual memory, but also the collective memory, important to create our present and future history. Greetings

Surely. Thanks

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perhaps it is necessary to forget in order to continue living
How horrible, I think I do this too. I have huge holes in my memories as a child. But some of what I do remember are the worst tragedies and betrayals. I'm not convinced that forgetting what allows us to live on, but rather a mis-remembering.
I think, for instance, no woman would go through labor a second time if she could accurately remember what the previous time felt like. She remembers it all clearly, but the baby overshadows all that.

Yes. I think there are traumatic experiences that human beings remember and sometimes are even marked for the rest of their lives. The memory becomes a tattoo, a wound. Thank you for your comment. Greetings.

@nancybriti, Yes, losing memory is convenient when we are burdened by many bad memories. But in my opinion it's not easy to forget bad memories at the same time. Everything is a process and success comes with practice.

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All right with you. Sometimes it is very difficult to forget the bad memories, as these will serve as learning. If we remember where and why we fell, we may never trip over the same stone again. Thank you for commenting

Welcome and that's true.

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