Drugs for Erasing Memory? (3)

After a quote from the character Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's famous play, about getting rid of her memory, this article goes on to explain how one could actually have their memory erased by using a pill. This pill would block the action of stress hormones, which are released by a part of the brain known as the amygdala. The amygdala decides what is important enough to remember. If that is blocked, then memories (especially the bad ones) could stop being remembered. It essentially disconnects emotion from memory, weakening the memory. It's been proven that strong emotion and memory go hand in hand. It's a simple and appealing way to avoid psychological damage after a traumatic event. However, this may not be the best idea.

The President's Council on Bioethics is set against this memory-altering drug. They fear that it could lead to people being disconnected from themselves or from reality. The very reason we have strong emotional responses to certain memories is because they are less trivial than other things that go on during the day. We would remember them longer and more vividly. All emotional memories serve a purpose, no matter how painful they may be. The bad memories help us avoid dangerous things in the future. Tests done on lab rats have proven this to be true of the drug.

Other studies have proven that humans sometimes do this naturally. Like when you notice something that reminds you of a bad memory, you momentarily flinch, and after awhile you can make yourself forget that memory. How that is explained therapeutically, though, is not known. There are still many people that believe the drug is a bad idea, and not enough people are working on it for it to be sold in stores too soon.

This was a fairly good article, mostly for its subject and its unbiased view of the topic. It examines both sides of the ethics of erasing memories with drugs in equal depth, and with equal amounts of research. However, the article also repeated itself a lot. Ideas were repeated, even if they were in different words, it made the article long as well as a little boring at times. However, overall I say it was a good, in-depth article.

Its importance in the world of psychology is mostly obvious. There are many areas it covers: how to erase memories, what erasing memories would do, and whether or not we should do it. It allows you to learn a lot about the first two, and form your own opinion about that last one. I would say this is very important.

http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/memory_drugs_sd.html