In this month’s Wired magazine there’s an article that talks about research being done to make a pill that would potentially selectively erase traumatic memories in the case of severe events. It would block a specific protein that is used in recall. The article goes into great detail as to how this supposed to work so I have included a link to it so people can form their own opinions.
My own personal opinion is that I wouldn’t trust it.. I feel that there would still be something unconscious there, something residual, but you wouldn’t know why. Like when you suppress a memory.. which to my mind it is worse not knowing why you might feel something, than remembering and knowing why.
However, to be clear they don’t say anything like that in the article. It is just a feeling that I got when reading it. Obviously they would have to do more research and long-term studies to really know for sure.
I would be interested in hearing people’s thoughts on this cause it is a thought provoking subject..
Here is the link: “The Forgetting Pill,” Wired, March 2012
I don’t think I’d trust a pill to erase my memories either. Sounds to me like the pharmaceutical companies have figured out another way to make a buck off of people’s misery.
I don’t like the idea, looks like another chapter of the general worldwide brainstorming process. Forget the trauma and go buy new shoes… :/
Why forgetting bad or good experiences? If your passionate love story ends bad, would you like to forget it? Not realizing the mistakes and the growth made before the fail?
We are what we are based on our experiences and on how we have dealt with them, the way we remember them and the way we have “digested” them. I agree big traumas destroy people’s way of facing reality: after a big trauma we have no tools to interpret our reality and we are lost. But isn’t reality what we make? Don’t we create our own world and experiences through our believes and thoughts? If you agree with that traumas will become an important kick to go deeper in ourselves and to stop looking for help or causes outside ourselves. To find out who we really are and why we wanted to get at this point of our lives. And which are the challenges that will make us better human beings.
So it would be non-human to forget such things, even if they are painful.
I agree. I would rather take the bad with the good! Pain and sadness make us stronger, more empathetic, build our character.. make joy more sweet.