• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Time Slip??? (Side Effects of Memory Loss / Disruption)

liveinabin

liveinabin

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Oct 19, 2001
Messages
1,921
I heard a programme on Radio 4 on sunday about memory loss.
They were talking to two women whose husbands had both suffered from memory loss. One man had forgot most of his life but also had only a 30 second or so short term memory.

The other mans story though was (I'm my opinion) the most interesting. He was a 55 year old man with a wife and grown up family. He had suddenly some kind of clot on his brain that put him into a coma for 7 weeks. when he came to he had lost all his memory from when he was 12. When his wife took him home he wouldn't put his clothes on because as far as he was concered they weren't his. He wanted the clothes he wore as a teenager. He was terrified of modern cars. He wont let a microwave oven in the house. As far as he knows he went to bed one day as a 12 year old and woke up with some woman standing there saying it was 2000 and she was his wife. He won't look in the mirror because it's not him its an old man.

While this story was told by the wife I couldn't help thinking what it must be like for him as far as he knows he is a time traveller. He was amazed by colour tv and digital watches.

Just think about what that feels like for a second.


(If you want to know the programe was (i think) Between Ourselves)
 
If you liked that, I'd suggest watching the movie "Memento"
 
Heck, even if you didn't like it I'd suggest 'Memento.'

And no matter what 'conclusive' data I see about cryogenics, one things nags at me: How do you tell a dead man he's in the future? I imagine that if any of these zombies on ice are ever defrosted, they should need a great deal of counesling.
Thanks,
 
I've seen momento, that was the life the first man was leading.

What interested me was that the second man thought that he was a 12 year old from 1950 something that had just woken in the body of a 55 year old in 2000. As far as he thinks, this is not his body or life. He creates new memories without a problem, he just has a gap of 40 years in his memories. He thinks that he has slipped through time.
 
The first person (and indeed, Guy Pearce's character in Memento) sound like they have "Classic" Amnesia. As I understand it, this is the form it usually takes: Not only has the patient lost their memory, they also can't form long-term memories. This is as distinct from so-called "Hollywood" amnesia, which is what you usually see in movies and on TV (The type that is usually treated by the innovative "Second Head Bump Remedy".)

I remember seeing part of a documentary (hosted by Jonathon Miller, of course) about memory which included another man with Amnesia of this form. He retained memories for about 15 minutes to half an hour, and frequently lapsed into paranoid delusions that he was being fooled. Since he couldn't remember any of the people around him, why should he believe what they tell him about his past? (Understandable, really.) He was also an organist, and had actually recovered the ability to remember when he had played a repeated passage the correct number of times.

The second person, I don't recall hearing about this before (although it sounds like the type of thing that might happen from time to time, and have been studied somewhat). I'm sure, if he were agreeable, study of him (hopefully non-intrusively) and the parts of his brain that seem to be damaged could tell us a lot about the brain that we don't know. Of course, the researchers would have to get his consent, which could raise a whole complicated issue of whether he could give it (as he thinks he's a 12 year old). (Also, no-one could blame him if he said no. He's already under a fair bit of stress by the sounds of things.)

Which programme was it, and is it on the Listen Again page? (It's the only way I get to listen to stuff from Radio 4 more recent than 1972. The ABC only plays old Radio comedies from Britain.)
 
Thanks, liveinabin. Although I had a problem with the link, hopefully this one will work better.

The web page is about a week behind, but the RAM file is the most recent. I've found with things like Just A Minute or ISIHAC it's usually the other way around (they update the web page first, but it takes a day or two to get the RAM updated).

I don't have time to listen to it just now, I'll give it a go later on.

Thanks again.
 
This sounds very similar to a TV programme on Channel 4 a few months ago. I cannot recall the name of the programme, but it was something to do with "scars" and was presented by Amanda Redman (who was burnt badly as a child). Basically it was the story of four people and how they lived with their scars - acid in the face, self-mutilation, Amanda Redman's and finally a guy who didn't have a visible scar - his was psychological, although I thought by far the worse.

When he was in his 40's, happily married with children he got menengitis and was in a coma for a few weeks. When he awoke he too thought he was 17 and living in the 1950's. He had no idea who his wife was (he was convinced he was too young to be married) and was totally freaked out when told that he had children! When he agreed to go home with his "wife" he could not get over the "futuristic" motor car that she drove. He later said it felt as if he was living in a Flash Gordon movie. Every thing was foreign and strange to him. He would even behave like a "teenager" having tantrums and shouting at his wife and children - scary! Luckily he is "normal" now although he says he still can't get his head around the idea.
Give me a physical scar anyday!
 
Korskoff's Syndrome

The kind of amnesia in which a person loses memory each time he sleeps, and must keep a journal in order to remember things day to day, is Korsakoff's syndrome. It's the basis for the superb Soldier in the Mist by Gene Wolfe, about a legionaire who has this problem.
 
liveinabin1 said:
"He had suddenly some kind of clot on his brain that put him into a coma for 7 weeks. when he came to he had lost all his memory from when he was 12."

I wonder if his speech vocabulary is limited to words he knew by age 12 or if it includes words learned over the subsequent decades. (I suspect it's going to be the latter, although that's enigmatic enough in itself.)
Click to expand...
 
OTR, we're going to have to rename you Old Time Researcher for all the old threads you're resurrecting! :D

(BTW, don't forget to hit 'Close Tags' after you Quote something! ;) )
 
Old Threads

I've been attempting to work my way back through the entirety of the archives, downloading as much as possible, and am now more than half- way through.

This has been time-consuming, of course, and the other day I received an e-mail from Dr. T. Peter Park headlined "Are You Okay?," since I'd disappeared from my usual Yahoogroups Fortean lists.

Yeah, I messed up on the quote in my previous post, but I've been trying to do better!
 
Re: Old Threads

OldTimeRadio said:
I've been attempting to work my way back through the entirety of the archives, downloading as much as possible, and am now more than half- way through...
Click to expand...

I've done that on occasion as well. It's a goldmine!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top