Recent research confirms what Robert Burns wrote eons ago:
Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' meThose who suffer amnesia because of damage to the hippocampus also have trouble visualizing and anticipating future outcomes. They, like Burns' mouse, truly live in the present only.
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e'e.
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
Tangentially, to quote The Death of Artemio Cruz, "You only remember... what's going to happen. You don't want to foresee what has already happened." Try wrapping your brain around that one.
3 comments:
Are you familiar with the work of Elizabeth Loftus up at the UW?
Yes--debunking false memories, right? (Or maybe I'm remembering wrong.)
That is correct: she did a lot of work showing that hypnotically "recovered" memories (which sent many people to prison) are almost universally fabricated.
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