New drugs to selectively wipe bad memories are being debated in the US. Controversial to say the least, these drugs have been developed to help trauma victims wipe out their experiences and are being touted as potentially more effective than therapy. However…I think their potential for misuse is wide.
Our personalities are made up of memories, good and bad and whether a memory is bad enough to be wiped is subjective. I think we are very complex as humans and while I agree with drug companies that a traumatic experience could negatively alter someone’s life and the drug could help them move on it would be an artificial ‘moving on’. Once released for general consumption, the number of people claiming to be traumatised, legitimately or otherwise, would surely increase. I know people who started taking Ritalin and do not have attention deficit disorder but wanted help with concentration for their professional exams.
We could argue that people calling us fat or ugly in childhood would impact our lives traumatically enough that they should need wiped as they give us eating disorders and so on . Would we be bland happy people like in The Truman Show or would be more confident and develop exponentially as we won’t waste energy being angry or upset? Perhaps I have an over active imagination but this drug could also be used forcibly in order to cover criminal activity and in places like Guantanamo. I’m sure the debate will continue with this one but in the mean time you can ponder what memories you would wipe out and read more here.
Bubbly
The Chatterjis Blog 