Ah, Memories… To Remember or To Block?
Can memories be selectively remembered and selectively forgotten? A reflection on identity in “The Lost Mariner”.
“Is it possible to only vividly remember certain memories and block others out?” — @Elisemckenna13
I find it fascinating to think about the mind and how much information can be stored and held within its confines. This questions was written as a response to “The Lost Mariner” where the sense of time for a man named Jimmie stopped around the end of war time rather than “Persia on the Pacific” where a man was struggling between the identifying more with his American culture and his family’s Iranian culture. Personally, I felt more drawn to “The Lost Mariner” more than “Persia on the Pacific” as I could more personally identify with the former. I haven’t personally experienced such a strong divide between my Filipino and American roots. Everything was integrated in a way where there wasn’t much opposition from my family and friends about who I should more identify as. Needless to say, I personally have never fully experienced Jimmie’s case, but I do find that it’s an interesting topic to think about that can involve a lot of social, psychological and scientific explanation.
In Psychology, I learned about how people tend to cope with problems and stress. Usually, they don’t try to attack the cause, but they do tend to find ways of distracting themselves. One of the ways people try to get away from the problem is to suppress thoughts of the problem and only focusing on the good. Suppressing is a way of coping with the problems or trauma by blocking them out altogether. It is possible to block other memories out, but typically, it varies from person to person as their reaction to troubles vary. I think that some memories can be remembered for the same reason why others may be blocked, the impact affected the person either positively or negatively. If a memory heavily impacted or changed one’s life, it would fall under one of two categories: nightmare or dream. A memory that one would not want to remember would be something that affected their lives negatively and/or traumatized them (assault, violence, etc.). A memory that one would want to remember would be something that affected their lives positively and/or inspired them (marriage, baby, etc.). Some of these memories, whether good or bad, can be remembered vividly. Good memories may bring up pain from reminiscing the past, so suppression is possible for positive memories. This all has to do with the idea that people will try to only think of good things, blocking the bad, in order to cope with any conflicting emotions that may overwhelm the person.
In terms of this question and its relation to the reading, I do find that if there are some medical issues like the one that Jimmie personally went through, these issues can affect one’s memory and brain function. For Jimmie, the extended exposure to war coupled with his condition may have affected his memory, and assuming that his service was a big part of his life, that memory may be the force that becomes the basis for his life. It may be from his sense of pride from winning the war that he continues to have that factor be central to how he perceives time and himself.
