Memory
in Movies
Many contemporary movies created in the past decade have touched upon the concepts of amnesia, Alzheimer's, and memory loss in its various forms
The major motion picture, "50 First Dates," starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, directly addresses the issue of memory loss. Lucy, played by Barrymore, is a woman who has dramatic memory loss. She lost her short-term memory after getting into a car accident. She can remember her whole life up until the night before the accident. She, however, cannot make new memories and her "slate gets wiped clean every night while she sleeps," her father says at one point.
"Every day, she wakes up thinking it is October 13 of last year," her father says, so she does the same thing everyday, thinking it is that day. Luckily, her family maintains life for her as if it is October 13 every day. They celebrate her father's birthday every day, watch the same football game, eat the same cake, watch the same movie (because Lucy gives it to her father every day). She also builds structures out of waffles at the diner she goes to every morning for breakfast.
One day, however, she gets a ticket on her expired license plate and realizes it cannot be October, so she yells for help because she is very confused. This triggers her family to tell Lucy about the accident and her father shows her pictures from the accident from the newspaper. This has happened before, so the family is prepared. She also asks to go to her doctor to find out what is actually happening to her (this is not the first time she has wanted to hear it from a professional). The doctor shows her brain scans and tells her that her temporal lobe (responsible for storing new memories) was severely damaged in the accident, but scar tissue is impairing her ability to convert the short term memory to long term memories while she sleeps. This is a very imaginative syndrome entitled Goldfield Syndrome, named after Goldfield, who was a supposed real psychiatrist (not psychologist) who had temporal lobe damage himself. He tells Lucy she has a "magnificent amygdala" (amygdala is responsible for the processing of memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions).
After discussing Lucy's condition, they visit the brain institute in the hospital and meet someone named Ten Second Tom, who forgets everything after 10 seconds. He apparently "lost part of his brain." He has a condition similar to Clive Wearing, who originally contracted herpesviral encephalitis, which attacked his central nervous system. Wearing initially kept several diaries in which, every few minutes, he would write that he had just awoken from being dead, apparently unaware that he had written the same statement a few minutes earlier. Although this patient is unusual, it is usual for those with anterograde amnesia repeat actions, statements, and behaviors that they fail to remember having recently executed. This is very similar to Ten Second Tom's affliction, which could be classified as anterograde amnesia as well. Wearing's story is further discussed on page 9.
"So you guys just have to lie to me everyday?"
-Lucy asks in
"50 First Dates."
4
A still from "50 First Dates", a movie about memory loss and the power of one's love for another against many odds