The cover story in the current issue of Wired is about a pill for removing memories. It's primarily being discussed for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but they're also mentioning it for smaller psych issues.

Anyone consider using something like this?

I'm firmly a believer that we are largely the sum of our memories (Yes, The Doctor said that many years ago, I know) and I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be me, if any major memories were deleted.

As a Taoist, that pill goes against everything the philosophy stands on. I don't ever see myself ever taking something like that.

Jeremy

I'm not sure that I can articulate why right this second, but the idea of this makes me recoil as if my hand were about to touch a hot burner or something that was about to sting or bite.

I would use the hell out of it. I have frequent bouts ov anxiety or fear tied to previous situations, things I've tried to get over and just can't seem to.

Simply put, there are things I'd like to forget, very much, please and thank you.

I have the same reaction as Amber. To me, it would be like the worst game of Ker-plunk ever (I apologize for making everyone feel either old or like a baby). It's not like memories are in a filing cabinet; they influence, intersect, and manipulate our perception, actions, and reactions every second of every day. The resulting cognitive dissonance from outright removing a memory, as those patterns are not necessarily broken by forgetting something, would probably make you lose your marbles (sorry) for less identifiable and thereby treatable reasons than the worst of experiences could.

Then there's remembering that you took the forgetting pill. Wouldn't that raise all sorts of awful questions? Wouldn't that make someone obsess about what was so awful that they wanted it ERASED from their memory? Wouldn't that drive anyone nuts? No thank you, not worth it.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 02/28/12 03:24PM

I feel like that was the plot of a Red Dwarf episode...

It was also the plot of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, unless I miss my guess

I haven't seen it, though everyone tells me I should. And Red Dwarf would and probably did do that. Is it a good or bad sign that I'm tapping into the writers' water cooler? 0.o

*Innocent whistle*

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-Josh Marcus
Head of Plot, FI 3

Eternal Sunshine was a major procedure, that took care of all the evidence of using it.
This is not supposed to go to those lengths.

Ori's memory issues are quasi-related to a memory-deletion process (if I ever finish my novella of a char history, and it gets approved) and when I started, I didn't think we'd have anything like this for decades. I can accept some people might want certain highly traumatic events removed. I don't.

Once again, Dinosaur Comics helps us understand this:

Dinosaur Comics

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Brian Paul!
-Prop Boss, Plot Team, Rules Comm, Other Stuff

I WISH THAT EXISTED

So, after some musing, I think Erin put the right words to our shared feeling of revulsion. It's partly what Jeremy said, too. While not a Taoist myself, I do see myself as the sum of my memories and experiences, and I think I've learned just as much about myself and the world around me from my bad memories as the good. Without them, I do not believe that I would be myself.

And I don't just mean the little bad things, I'm including the big ones that have irrevocably altered my perceptions, my judgments, my morals, and shaped my psychological being.

I may not be happy that they are part of my history, but I see them as needful for me to be... well, me!

I definitely agree that we are the sum of our experiences. Every thought we have, every choice we make is based on some situations in our past. If do not recall the mistakes we have made, we will never learn from them.

This topic is actually the basis of another of my larp characters. She has had every bad, upsetting or mildly inconvenient memory locked away never to bother her again. It's been interesting exploring how this would effect a person, and how, once the memories start to come back, she would react to them.

Given the memory issues I've witnessed via Alzheimer’s and pharmaceutical side effects, I'm on the fence. Personality changes from memory loss are incredibly disturbing to witness.

I can understand wanting to forget something traumatic, as such an event can have horrible aftereffects which touch upon every part of a person's life. PTSD is absolutely a reality for some. This can also result in personality changes. In this case, getting back to feeling 'normal' and 'safe' might be a good thing.

I've been fortunate never to experience something which I put on the level with combat or rape PTSD. I have had transference events occur which were highly disturbing due to one incident at the end of HS. The most recent came 15 years after the fact, and it triggered a panic attack. It took me two weeks to figure out from where it came.

I am also on the fence...
While I agree that my experiences, good and bad, have made me the person I am today there are things which are such deep seated in our psychie in terms of trauma that it can ruin your ability to function in certain scenarios. That level of transferrance can do TERRIBLE things to you... In my particular case it almost completely upseated my life in a very bad way.

At the same time... Would those experiences which are so suppressed and deeply hidden actually vanish?... I'm not sure a pill can really do that.

According to the article... the pill is supposed to break down the chemicals that form the memories in the brain.

I am way out of my league as to guessing how well it works.

And on the same note, how do they know which memories will be erased?

What if the traumatic memory sticks around and your marriage or the birth of your child goes away... Your college education? What if they go away together After all, our memories are all linked.

Would anyone really want to forget who did something terrible to them or that something awful and traumatizing had happened in their life?

I say let nature run its' course. There is no reason to muck around with a persons' memories.

As said above, we are a sum of our memories. Don't mess with them. That's my belief.

Chris M Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> According to the article... the pill is supposed
> to break down the chemicals that form the memories
> in the brain.
>
> I am way out of my league as to guessing how well
> it works.
>

*blink* Because that's not inviting a raging maniac with a sledgehammer into a china shop?

(NOTE: Bull's have been proven delicate creatures, BTW!)

The only practical way that I believe that this memory pill could work: it would have to be immediately taken after a bad event. If something you do not want to remember happens, you could take the pill shortly afterward and the information would not be properly stored in long-term memory.

This would be more more effective than the traditional methods of binge drinking. Despite some sincere efforts I have witnessed, you can't get drunk fast enough if an unexpected trauma occurs. A pill that interrupts the formation of long-term memories could be useful after say, an assault of some kind. So you can remember this miserable experience and probably experience post-trauma symptoms, possibly even PTSS, or you could take a pill and not have to worry about psychological damage.

The reason this is not a good idea in my opinion: It would be very therapeudic but it would invalidate any testimony you might make in a court of law against your attacker. Or if you were involved in an accident that caused someone to be injured or killed; it seems it would be advantageous to know what mistake you made, or to know that you made no mistake.


As for memories that are already stored in long term memory: there is no pill that could effectively target them. You would have to destroy the part of the brain holding the memory, and even then it would probably not work correctly because it would be difficult to identify all the places in the brain that map to that memory.

For example, if you had a horrible experience during a holiday dinner many things could remind you of it. Christmas, family dinners, roast turkey, cloth napkins, a snowy drive home.