ASTU Blog #2
While reading Sturken’s Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering, the topic of “memory and forgetting” posed as a subject worth researching further. The excerpt briefly mentions that for the majority of the population, memory can be seen as unreliable and selective in how and what we can remember (Sturken, 1997).
It is likely many of us have trouble recalling minor details of our lives for example what foods consisted our last Christmas dinner or even on a more simple level what time we left the house this morning. However, there is a rare community of people who do not share this common trait of forgetfulness. HSAM (highly superior autobiographical memory) also referred to as hyperthymesia syndrome, describes individuals who are uniquely able to recollect in detail almost any memory with incredible accuracy (Morris, 2017).
Many students cramming for a test likely know the longing and desire for a brain with the ability to remember everything perfectly, but for people with HSAM, they wish for the exact opposite. Although it is relatively easy for people with hyperthymesia syndrome to recall memories, there are various drawbacks to this skill which could be considered undesirable.
An integral part of the high school education system is based on memory. For the most part, testing focuses on how many facts you are able to retain and how well you can regurgitate that information back. Memory is held quite valuable as it tends to be associated with intelligence. Often when someone says “I forgot” it elicits a judgemental and at times negative response from the other party. A forgetful mind is often considered one lacking mental agility.
Utilizing Freud’s thought considering “screen memory”, can be helpful in exploring why HSAM might not be as cracked up as it is thought to be. Screen memory is when memories are substituted for other memories too painful or disturbing to retrieve (as cited in Sturken, 1997). Often when we have a memory that is too dark or difficult to process, we repress the mnemonic by replacing it with another. Much like a child who experiences a traumatic event, they may repress the memory as if it never happened. The complication with HSAM then is not the inability to remember but rather the inability to forget. Painful experiences may flood into the conscious of those with HSAM and force them to relive each part of the agony once more. Due to this occurrence, people with HSAM often feel lonely or depressed because of the heavy emotional burden of being unable to forget (Stahl, 2016). Owens who has been diagnosed with HSAM explains, “Sometimes, having this sort of extreme memory can be a very isolating sort of thing. There are times when I feel like I’m fluent in a language that nobody else speaks. Or that I’m walking around and everybody else has amnesia,” (Stahl, 2016).
Because HSAM is such a relatively new discovery, wider research about hyperthymesia syndrome has yet to be completed and equally as important, there lacks a deeper understanding as to how the syndrome affects those diagnosed. Limited magnetic resonance imaging has allowed researchers to examine and identify potential discrepancies in the brain patterns of individuals with and without HSAM. In a CBC article, scientist Dr. Larry Cahill admits “Well, if you want the honest truth, the honest truth is that I thought, I bet we’ll find nothing” (Stahl, 2016) On the contrary, two main sections of the brain -the temporal lobe and caudate nucleus often relating to memory- were highlighted as being sizeably larger than average.
Hyperthymesia syndrome is fascinating in that it seems to suspend the very human characteristic of forgetfulness. For the average person, the ability to store all your memories seems like a solution to solving many of life’s challenges however the weight of these memories is what affects the other side of HSAM, potentially leading to massive mental strains. Like anything that affects the brain, further understanding and researching the intricacies of HSAM by scientists such as Cahill will be important especially for those diagnosed with the syndrome who may want more answers and insight as to why their memory works the way it does.
CITATIONS:
- Sturken, M. (1997). Tangled memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic, and the politics of remembering. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-gift-of-endless-memory/
- https://www.healthline.com/health/hyperthymesia#outlook