If my memories shape "who i am" today, what have I to say about things I can't remember?

Question

simple-sounding question, i think, but with a tough answer, if any...
if my memories contribute in a formative manner to "who i am" today, to an ever-changing personal identity, would it be right to say that the things i don't remember "happened to someone else"? Did they actually happen to "me" if "me" is some kind of aggregate of memories and experiences?

first responder: good point! lol...
though i would suggest that the lack of memory is usually characterized by a kind of memory *of* the memory... for instance, most real memories are gone in a matter of months, replaced by descriptive memories of those things --- a kind of "reproductive" as opposed to "productive" memory...

so, for instance, Locke talks about how, because we don't remember what we do when we're drunk, it's correct to say that when we are "out of our mind" in one way or another, we're not responsible for our actions, because the actor in those situations was not us...

what i mean is slightly different -- if i can't remember attending a cursive writing class in the second grade, but i know that it happened because i remember that i used to remember it, should i say that it was "me" or someone else who attended that class?
that might be a better description of what i meant with my question...

more background for my asking this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ai10OfoOb_2AHEgjazpIyIfsy6IX?qid=20070425012116AA3HF4E

Answer 1

I kind of like Hume's perspective on the Persistence Question. You at any specific point in time isn't the same you at any other time - a difference in qualitative identity. I'm going through a lot of grief right now with my wife's grandmother who went thru a stroke. Same body, same flesh - NOT the same person.

Answer 2

It actually begs another, deeper question: what makes you think that even the things you DO remember happened to you?

Take witness testimony. We know that in many cases you can get a dozen eye-witnesses to an event and come up with twelve completely different accounts of what happened. Yet our common belief in a single thread of history suggests that no more than one account can be accurate, if even that.

I know that kind of thing has happened to me a number of times. I formed an impression of an event which had a deep impact on my behaviour. But later found the impression to be wrong. What really happened was far less important than what I thought to have happened.

I think it's fair to say that the same is true for anything in your head. It doesn't matter if there really is a monster living under your bed if you behave exactly as if there was. The only thing that's important is what fits the facts, so to speak.

We see extreme examples of this in some people who develop irreversible amnesia. They may develop whole new personalities and their past self is a stranger. Why should it be any less true for specific things you don't remember?

Use this to your advantage if you like. CHANGE your memories and believe the new versions. If it amuses you to believe that cursive was directly programmed into your brain, then do so. It makes no difference.

Create the past with the same vigor that you create the future. For all practical purposes, past and future are really the same thing.

Answer 3

i would say that they still shape "who you are today". even if you cannot actively remember some things happening, the mind does not forget. are there not texts and test cases that describe people who have been frightened or hurt and then forget the event, but if confronted with items related to that event causes them to react instinctively?

take for example the writing class scenario. you don't remember it, you only remember having once remembered it. but your writing style and usage is probably still affected by having taken the class. and if you made any friends or picked up any habits or came in contact with new places and things, they also affect you now (and you probably remember them more than the class).

so the "did it happen to me"? yes. i would say that no matter what you do, even if you cannot remember the event, it affects you for the rest of your life. you may not remember the specific, but the feelings you had at the time, and any other factors cannot totally be forgotten. the only time it would apply is if you forgot that time period completely (aka amnesia). but then again, the fact that you cannot remember that period affects you as well. and your search (or lack there of) for what happened during that period will affect you and shape who you are currently). who you are doesn't change... the idiosyncacies that shape how you respond is what changes (for example if you became a blank slate... total amnesia, where you would have to start from scratch).

Answer 4

If my memories shape "who I am" today, then the things you don't remember do not shape it. You've experienced them, but what can you say are of the effects of those memories you can't remember, nothing. However, what does shape your personality is what you remember of your experiences. Because if all of our experience were remembered, then personality defined as the pattern of collective character, behavioral, temperamental, emotional, and mental traits of a person could never be constant, therefore not a personality because no pattern would arise. (For example, think of the savant that remembers everything [Rain Man] does he have a personality, I am not saying that he is not human because of it, just in case.)

Answer 5

Forgotten memories did happen to you. Because you remembered them at one time, they affected your actions that you may remember, but you wouldn't had performed those actions if it wasn't because of a prior memory oyu have now forgotten. Suppose you didn't walk through an alley because you remembered you stepped on a glass shard last time you went through that alley. Then by walking another way you meet Joe. Now you remember meeting Joe, but you don't remember ever stepping on a glass shard, even though that memory directly effected the reasons behind you meeting him, and remembering it.

Answer 6

I have seen on tv medical shows neurologists touching a part of the brain during an operation and the person remembers
"exactly' what happened, the exact time, the colors around them, what people said, etc. I don't know if this is true or not,
but sort of think it could be.

Answer 7

If you have forgotten memories; They are included in who you are now subconsciously and come to the surface typically as the complex web of feelings and emotions. The things you experienced but have forgotten did not happen to anyone else but you. Thinking that your forgotten experiences actually happened to somone else is a delusional consiousness construct that if taken to the extreme could lead to a depersonalisation disorder such as Schizophrenia.

Answer 8

nicely...while has Orton Convincingly won any significant titles....with the aid of himself...w/out interference or cheating?! complicated to declare if it somewhat is a waste or not....Orton is a heel. All heels have some form of approaches that cause them to heel. IE: cheating....DQing themselves to keep call...Interference.... issues like that. I recommend look at while Legacy attacked HHH with Orton?! HHH Lasted a quick on an identical time as taking over ALL 3 fighters. furnish it he misplaced yet you purchased a three on a million subject...and he in basic terms became into in a journey past too....HHH held his very own for basically somewhat. besides all that set aside...basically those that would deem it a waste of time is the story writers. i think of the two way win or lose, Orton isn't out of the photograph or limelight in any respect. the story line would be written to repair and alter human beings's innovations of him and such. i think of Orton will constantly be up there as between the perfect undesirable adult males in the WWE. I recommend look at aptitude, he too throughout his profession as a HEEL, the final public of wins have been with the aid of cheating approaches. yet did that ward off his Legacy? Roddy Pipper....yet another one....side... and so on human beings like to love the undesirable guy in particular cases. Reguardless of ways the call is won or misplaced. IE Cheated to get the call, or walk out and get a 10 count quantity DQ and so on.

Answer 9

I think we are left with 'trace' memories. We are not conscious of why we don't like heights, for instance, but are terrified of glass elevators, and such.

Another , more complicated, possibility is...we have nothing to do with any of it! Thoughts, memories arise ( from an energy source) and influence the 'programmed personality', as an input of sorts, and the program responds, accordingly, with fear, etc.

Answer 10

I think that we remember everything, its just a matter of accessing those "lost" memories... when you remember those "lost" memories I could see how that would change who you are, or how you view yourself (or even how others view you)...so I suppose you could say that what you don't remember happens to someone else, just that someone else is embedded somewhere in you...