Hi Nancy- These cases come up all too frequently. You are right to listen to your BS detector. There is a real phenomenon called Global Amnesia which can sometimes present after severe head trauma. While it is rare it is pretty devistating. In the one case that I observed the victim not only couldn't remember his name or his family he also couldn't remember how to talk, how to tie his shoes, how to eat, how to blow his nose, etc. He was like a six month old child in a lot of ways. After about two years of training a bunch of stuff had been re-learned & there appeared to be some savings (although difficult to measure with any precision). In contrast, the scenario of a person being unable to recall any personal information while retaining everything else strains credability. Try to imagine an interconnected nervous sytem where you can remember how to speak a language but you can't remember any of the people that you spoke it with. Or try to imagine how you could remember the times tables but not the name of the school where you learned them. Or try to imagine knowing what a birthday party is but being unable to remember the name of a single person whose party you ever attended. And all of this from a bump on the head! If anyone truly believes this stuff then I have a great land deal for them as soon as it's low tide. I file these cases under the heading of "motivated forgetting".
-Don. ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Saturday, February 25, 2006 11:51 am Subject: In anticipation of the inevitable questions > Hi Tipsters: > > There's a new documentary out - unknown white male - in which a > man turns up > on a NY subway with such severe retrograde amnesia he no longer > knows who he > is. > > My BS detector has been triggered, because my understanding of > scientific > (as opposed to dopey soap opera) explanations of amnesia is that > one would have > to have massive cortical damage (not a "bump on the head" as > mentioned in the > review of the movie) and be disabled a la Clive Waring in order > to lose > one's sense of identity. > > Can anyone speak to this - I would like to be prepared, I may not > have a > chance to go see this movie before the questions from students begin. > > It doesn't sound plausible at all and I am suspicious given that > the subject > of the documentary and the producer are also friends. > > Nancy Melucci > Long Beach City College > Long Beach CA > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-tips- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
