If you lose your memory, can you still know things? What can you know? What can't you know for certain if you've lost it?
Can you have self-identify without memory? Consider a person with a type of dementia. What kind of knowledge can that person have?
What strategies might you employ to overcome a memory loss? Have you seen the movie Memento? How does the main character deal with his memory impairment?
What kind of knowledge do you need the most assurance for? Does it require memory?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
If you lose your memory, can you still know things? What can you know? What can't you know for certain if you've lost it?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't this depend on how much of your memory that you've lost and possibly, how you lost it? I have one acquaintance with Alzheimer's. I would visit him every weekend in a nursing home and he never remembers my name...but he always remembered how to solve a Rubix cube, play Scrabble or the answers in Trivial Pursuit. In another instance, I had a friend that was in a motorcycle accident, he suffered a massive head injury and returned to the age of infancy. In one example, Mr. Maze (the Rubix cube guy), maintained some elements of his memory...he remembered how to solve a Rubix cube. In the other, he forgot the most basic of internal and external knowledge. In both of these situations, neither were aware of what they forgot.
What strategies might you employ to overcome a memory loss? Have you seen the movie Memento? How does the main character deal with his memory impairment?
I have seen Memento and the character in the movie dealt with his impairment by leaving himself notes about what he need to do. This seemed to be an effective strategy for how to deal with memory loss. Detail where you've been and what you've done and what you need to do. Thought this does not resolve the fear of not remembering, it would help you identify how to move forward.
Memory is something we all have. Some memory we like to forget like the two wars I was in. When i was a child for the six years of my life i was called bobby. When i was adopted my name became Michael. Some memory we like to forget and some we would like to remember forever. Michael Lancaster
ReplyDeleteIn the film, Memento, the main character has short term memory loss. He can’t remember anything after he was attacked trying to defend his wife who was murdered. To cope with his condition, he maintains a system of notes, photographs, and tattoos to record information about himself and others, including his wife's killer.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a way in order to deal with memory loss. It would be very time consuming and this was a movie so I’m not completely sure that you could be able to pick up right where you left off the next day just by looking at notes that you have been writing down, but it does seem to have some credibility towards it.
If you lose your memory, like Leslie said, you will still retain some form of memory. My great aunt had a stroke four years ago and as a result of that, she has lost most short term memory. Yet, she is able to recall things in extreme detail from years ago. She is known to call a family member and ask them who they met at WalMart, in the shoe department, back in 1996. Or she can now remember the name of every guy she dated and where they went on a date. Yet, she cannot remember the day, names of people around her, and recent events.
ReplyDeleteThe thought of not having memories is a disturbing thought for me. When I was young, I was taught that we all have a “memory box” in our brains where we store every memory we ever had. It will take some searching, and maybe another person’s help, but it is possible to retrieve a large amount of these memories. Memories we like, we keep towards the top, memories we don’t want to remember are shoved to the bottom. But regardless, they have made me who I am and I would be lost without my memory. Also, it’s hard to be an actress and not remember lines.
It would be difficult to not remember people, places, things, times, days, schedules, etc.
Yet, with today’s technology, it is possible to never commit these items to memory as we all have them on our computers, cell phones, smart phones, etc. I cannot recollect the last number I memorized another number than my own cell phone number.
I think memory is something that every human has and that it is not ever really lost, but that it sometimes just “goes away”. For example, when you don’t see someone for a long time (like years at a time) and then when you do happen to run by them again, it may take you a minute but you will remember them and be like “oh my gosh…. Is that you?” So it never leaves you leaves you. I think it just gets stored in the back of your mind while you are obtaining new memories. So to the question, “if you lose your mind can you still know things”. Yes, I think that you can still know things. I think it might just take you longer to recall it and it may also depend on how hard the person works to remember the things. If you have for certain “lost” your memory, I feel you still know things. A person who may have lost their memory may still know that they are human and know basic things including that they lost their memory, but are not quite sure what all they remember exactly in detail. However, some people might remember more then the basics, I feel it also depends on the person and the stage of memory loss. What all do they want to remember? Is losing there memory away for them to start over? I also believe that you can still have self-identification if you lost your memory. I mean you are the only one who really knows yourself inside and out and I don’t believe you can just one day wake up and be like “who am I”, I think again it just gets stored in the back and may take you a minute to realize it.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has memory of something that is good or bad.The first 6 years of my life i went by Bobby. When i got adpoted at the age of 6 my new parents named me Michael.You can remember things about growing up there was a lot of us but my mom and dad gave us love. When i was in the army i have some good memory and some bad ones. A good memory i meet one of my best friends in the war. We talk on the phone and we are on facebook. The bad memory of seeing people die. I've seen people blow up get shot. These memorys are old but i still think about them everyday. Everyday you will have a memory I hope it is a good one!
ReplyDeleteIf you lose your memory you can still know things for sure- depending on whether you lose your short term memory or long term memory or both. In dementia, short term memory is lost first. Therefore, the person may not be able to remember what they had for breakfast but they still remember how to tie their shoes and they still remember their spouse and their children and their own name. Even when people with dementia lose their long term memory certain memories still remain intact, such as smell. These persons with dementia may be able to have a self identity depending on how self identity is defined. If it means knowing their name only- that memory tends to stay intact for quite a long time. If self identity means knowing the things you love and the things you live for than they probably do not have one. I have never seen the movie Memento but I believe that strategies one can employ to help with memory loss could be to orient the person to things such as where they are and the date each day. Other strategies could be to keep the brain active by playing trivia that is relative to the persons age, playing music that they like, and putting puzzles together. I don't think that one can ever really overcome memory loss as it is usually irreversible besides in the case of delirium or amnesia.
ReplyDeleteMemory can never be erased, only suppressed. Though you may block our memories or forget because of a medical issue such as amnesia, they are still stored deep in our minds. Memory is a sensory function that is most brought out in our smell and sight. If we were to loose our memory, we would still subconsciously know things, they just may not be able to be retrieved for use at that moment. We can know things through our gain of knowledge and store that knowledge for further use and reference in our decisions. I feel like having a self Identity would be a collective knowledge of all our experiences, values, and decisions, and if you loose those you will not have a self-identity. To overcome memory loss many people resort to trying to become familiar with as many things that may link them to their past as possible such as people or places to jolt a memory.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Aimee. You can't take away memory from yourself or from someone. You can try to erase your memory, but you will always remember certain things that have happened in the past. If memory is lost, we still know things, but are embedded into our brain to a point to where they cannot be retrieved. You may not remember something for the longest time, but it only takes one incident, one location, or one person for a memory to come back that is associated with a memory. An object, action, or a event can also trigger a memory, which you may think you've lost for good.
ReplyDeleteYou can lose your memory and still know things. For instance, if someone has short term memory losses they will still know that a fire will burn them if they touch it. However, someone can’t know certain things that may have been acquired or learned within a recent period of time if they suffer from that short term memory loss. I think that self-identity depends on the type of memory loss that a person may have. In today’s world with the technology that is surrounding us, someone may be able to watch a video of their self from the past or read/study things they may have written/made/etc… Someone might be able to regain a sense of their self-identity if they have lost all memory by watching certain videos or referring back to things from their past. Someone with short term memory loss really does not lose self-identity unless perhaps it happens at a very early age.
ReplyDeleteMemory I think is through experience of something or something. If you lose your whole memory of everything you still will learn things through perception and experience. The sun is hot, water is wet, things of the nature you are going to know. Socially, I think it would be very difficult to percieve because you do not know how you were before. Videos, books, pictures all can help but I think it would be very difficult to regain a sence of self-identity if you don't remember what the identity was. The past pictures and videos may give you some idea but I don't think that gives you enough knowledge of what you really believe in and how you interact with the world.
ReplyDeleteIf you lose your memory, you will lose the option of internalism and have to rely on social epistemology. Without your own past experiences and thoughts, you will have to re-learn things over each time. Then it will become new knowledge again and again. I don't think that you could have a self identity if you can't remember your past, where you've been, who are your loved ones, etc. I believe that I am who I am today because of what I have done and where I have been in my past. I have learned from my mistakes. One who can't recall what they did the day before will probably not really have a great idea of who they are, mainly because they won't remember how they react to situations. To help remember memories, one could keep scrapbooks and videos and if they forget about something, they can go back to one of the memory joggers they created at the time of a certain event.
ReplyDeleteIf you lose your memory you can still know things. This is true for people with Alzheimer's disease or dementia. They have the tendency to lose their short term memory however, the tend to keep their long term memories for a much longer period of time. Eventually most people end up losing both their long and short term memory but they tend to hold onto that long term memory for awhile. It's amazing that the sense of smell through the olfactory system can bring back a memory. I think we still continue to know things even if our brain or memory is not able to express them.
ReplyDelete