Dear Diary,
Today, out of the blue, I recalled a story that I had read many years back. It was about a man who had an amazing memory. He could remember every single detail – names, faces, dates, events. One day, he was admitted in an asylum in a completely delirious state.
Doctors who studied him diagnosed his condition as stemming out of an inability of his brain to forget things. Apparently, our sanity depends on the brain’s capacity to selectively forget the past and to prioritise on what to commit to memory. There is only so much space in the hard disk up there in your head. Overload can cause it to crash.
Wait a minute. Why did I remember this piece of trivia that I had read many years back? Has my brain lost the faculty to selectively forget? Has it suffered irreversible damage? I have been thinking all along that my rapidly diminishing memory is on account of my inability to remember things; whereas the real problem may be that I am unable to forget.
Note to self. Do the reverse of what you have been attempting to do. Work extra hard to forget, instead of trying to remember more.
Today, out of the blue, I recalled a story that I had read many years back. It was about a man who had an amazing memory. He could remember every single detail – names, faces, dates, events. One day, he was admitted in an asylum in a completely delirious state.
Doctors who studied him diagnosed his condition as stemming out of an inability of his brain to forget things. Apparently, our sanity depends on the brain’s capacity to selectively forget the past and to prioritise on what to commit to memory. There is only so much space in the hard disk up there in your head. Overload can cause it to crash.
Wait a minute. Why did I remember this piece of trivia that I had read many years back? Has my brain lost the faculty to selectively forget? Has it suffered irreversible damage? I have been thinking all along that my rapidly diminishing memory is on account of my inability to remember things; whereas the real problem may be that I am unable to forget.
Note to self. Do the reverse of what you have been attempting to do. Work extra hard to forget, instead of trying to remember more.
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