Forgetfulness is one of man's greatest fears. We can jokingly mention insanity when we are unable to figure out where to put the socks, but serious memory diseases do not cause laughter. Memories shape our personality, and what will be left of it if they disappear? How much better it would be if every human being had an absolute eidetic memory! It's better, right?
IMAGES, SOUNDS, THOUGHTS
Before digging into philosophical questions about the essence of forgetting, it is worth deciding on the terms. So, eidetic, it is also photographic, memory from the Greek word "eidos", that is, "image" - the ability to recall almost any visual image ever seen. A person looked at a photograph for a couple of minutes - and it will be deposited in his head for the rest of his life, the same with films, book pages, not to mention real events. In some cases, eidetic memory goes beyond visual perception, extending to sounds, when they are inextricably linked with pictures. Some experts also distinguish between the concepts of eidetic and photographic memory, referring to the former as bright and colorful visual and sound images, and to the latter as memorizing only text and numbers, without any visualization. The phenomenon of hypermnesia stands apart,allowing a person to remember and reproduce crazy amounts of information. A more particular case is hyperthymesia. The same, but only for those data that relate to their own personal life. Such is the absolute autobiographical memory, ideal for writing multivolume memoirs. If, of course, events in life are conducive to this and there is at least some kind of writing talent.
All these concepts, as well as their variations, are often mixed into one heap, called absolute memory, not only in the muddy quagmire of public consciousness, but also in quite serious articles on psychology. Someone claims that true eidetic memory does not exist at all, someone promises to help develop it in just a series of very inexpensive courses - the latter, however, are almost certainly scammers.
But what about real personalities, historical and not so, who showed the very "non-existent" perfect memory?
CAESAR AGAINST TESLA
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It's no secret that Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte are on the list of the greatest military leaders in history because of their victories and impressive mental abilities. Including each of them showed miracles of memory. Caesar knew by sight each of the 25 thousand soldiers of his army. Napoleon kept in his head all the maps of the terrain and the disposition of the troops he looked at. But these are commanders and rulers, but what about others and closer to us in time? One of the most striking examples is the great and terrible Nikola Tesla, whom some praise as the inventor of everything in the world, others as an outstanding scientist, but a brazen braggart. Yet the achievements of the Serbian genius cannot be denied, and his incredible memory is mentioned in almost any biographical summary. For example, the scientist could quote from memory the adored "Faust" of Goethe, and this is more than 400 pages of not the simplest text. In addition, Tesla was fluent in eight languages: Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Italian, German, English, French, Hungarian and Czech. Tesla's acquaintances said that he rarely kept notes, since he kept almost all the necessary information in his head. And it came in handy in 1885, when, after a terrible fire in the laboratory, he had to restore from memory most of the inventions stored there.
Even closer to modern times is the American Kim Peak, who served as the prototype for the famous character from "Rain Man". Unlike the hero from the film, Peak did not receive a fabulous inheritance and did not go with his brother on a road trip across the country, but his memory was even more impressive. Unable to button up his shirt normally, an eccentric with a ridiculous gait kept in his head about 12 thousand books and tens of thousands of smaller texts - stories, articles, telephone directories … Peak could reproduce without hesitation all international telephone codes and postal codes, all possible road maps of the USA, as well as thousands of pieces of music. At the same time, with age, his memory did not fade, but, on the contrary, sharpened.
Finally, the American actress Marylou Henner can boast of this very rare case of hyperthymesia, recalling with high accuracy every day in her life, starting from early childhood. The process of such memories, she said, does not cause any effort - as if you press a button on the player, and playback begins.
LOAD OF MEMORIES
At about this point, the reader may exclaim: "So this is great!" - and start flipping through numerous Internet articles with tips for developing absolute memory. But there is a reason why hypermnesia and hyperthymesia are generally considered mental disorders and not a gift from God. The ability to remember, as if pressing a button in the player, has to be done once in dozens of cases, and in the rest, memories from super-memory crawl to the surface without asking, overshadowing the present for a person, simply interfering with life. Moreover, numerous studies show that the mechanism of forgetting unnecessary information is critically important for the assimilation of new knowledge. And it's not only about dry data like numbers from old accounts and passwords, but also impressions and experiences. We carefully keep in our memory the moments of our personal life that are dear to us, for example, praise from our parents,first kiss, birth of a child. But with the same success, memory captures the negative, forcing us to return to shameful and sad memories against our will. Have you ever been unable to fall asleep remembering the mistakes of your youth? Did you not dare to take a serious step in a relationship, having burned yourself many years ago? But the good memory is to blame - albeit extremely selective. It is important to learn from mistakes, and not to get hung up, but hypermnesia and eidetics will not ask your opinion. Welcome to sleepless nights wondering what you did wrong in your life! By the way, sleep is one of the most important mechanisms for maintaining a healthy memory, allowing you to smooth out unnecessary sharp edges. Have you ever been unable to fall asleep remembering the mistakes of your youth? Did you not dare to take a serious step in a relationship, having burned yourself many years ago? But the good memory is to blame - albeit extremely selective. It is important to learn from mistakes, and not to get hung up, but hypermnesia and eidetics will not ask your opinion. Welcome to sleepless nights wondering what you did wrong in your life! By the way, sleep is one of the most important mechanisms for maintaining a healthy memory, allowing you to smooth out unnecessary sharp edges. Have you ever been unable to fall asleep remembering the mistakes of your youth? Did you not dare to take a serious step in a relationship, having burned yourself many years ago? But the good memory is to blame - albeit extremely selective. It is important to learn from mistakes, and not to get hung up, but hypermnesia and eidetics will not ask your opinion. Welcome to sleepless nights wondering what you did wrong in your life! By the way, sleep is one of the most important mechanisms for maintaining a healthy memory, allowing you to smooth out unnecessary sharp edges. By the way, sleep is one of the most important mechanisms for maintaining a healthy memory, allowing you to smooth out unnecessary sharp edges. By the way, sleep is one of the most important mechanisms for maintaining a healthy memory, allowing you to smooth out unnecessary sharp edges.
LITTLE NOTHINGS OF LIFE
The human brain is a monstrously complex mechanism, and it is still not fully known how and where certain memories are stored. When we complain about bad memory, we usually mean something specific, such as birthdays, forgotten keys and phones, passwords, PIN codes, household chores. Just at such moments, the ghosts of Caesar and Tesla emerge behind their backs, giggling at the wretched mortals, unable to touch their greatness. Only here's a fun fact: with the highest probability, Caesar also forgot about everyday trifles, like you and me. He remembered the faces of the soldiers, but where he put his favorite belt - no. Because different memories are responsible for different parts of the brain, which are not always friendly. Mnemonist Brad Williams once remarked that, despite his amazing memory, he constantly loses keys and cannot find them. But,unlike everyone else, he remembers exactly what day it happened.
The temptation of absolute memories is based on a perfectly understandable basis, but still one should not envy the departed and living geniuses. Realistic and not particularly challenging exercises for developing the necessary areas of memory are available everywhere - without the need to "photograph with your eyes" every day that passes. Remembering the right things is real art, but it is incomplete without the ability to forget.
Maxim Filaretov