The
Art of Forgetting
Most people experience the anxiety and fear of losing their
memory. School children, orators, stage
actors, and performers cultivate personal systems to ensure they can recall
facts, scripts or sequences. The moment our elders struggle with recall, we
assume the onset of Alzheimer’s or Dementia.
Perhaps it’s a residual belief from Greek mythology of
Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness
of the Underworld that leads to a
state of complete oblivion.
So much research has been done on methods to sharpen one’s
memory as an essential ingredient for
developing intelligence. However, more
and more research is focusing on the benefits of forgetting. Ingrid Wickelgren,
author of Forgetting is Key to a Healthy
Mind argues “The ability to let go
of thoughts and remembrances supports a sound state of mind, a sharp intellect—
and even superior memory”.
Neuroscientists, Blake Richards and Paul Frankland, suggest forgetting enhances intelligent decision
making by reducing the intrusion of less relevant information, makes us more
flexible in our thinking.
This is contrary to Sigmund Freud’s belief that suppressed
memories must be faced to create a healthy mind. Truth serum drugs invented
in the early 20 C were used in therapy during WWII to free blocked traumatic memories. In a TV series, Black Mirror, in one
episode implants allow people to play
back their memories in front of their eyes or on a screen. An extreme case of total recall of every
experience is the condition called "Hyperthymesia", said to be agonizing by those few who have it.
Journalist, Oliver Burkeman asks “With all the focus on improving memory, are
we in danger of forgetting the art of forgetting?”
Photography, video, and sound recordings and now Google and
Facebook, not only make it difficult to forget, but replace actual memory with
stand in images. Remembering can be an
illusion - memories may be partial,
incorrect or implanted. Memories become stories that define who we are in the present.
Collective memories, a term coined by French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, are
created to establish national narratives that select facts from the past, and
forget others, to create positive national identities. Some forgetting is deliberate
such as sanitizing history of colonial injustices or slavery. Some memories are too painful to remember
such as the Partition stories of India and Pakistan or the circumstances of the
loss of East Pakistan.
A legal form of amnesia was developed in Athens around 400
BC to resolve the impact of brutal wars. The Truth and Reconciliation
Commission was a unique solution to prevent the blame game in post-apartheid South Africa.
Lewis Hyde in his book A Primer
for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past
writes: “Forgetfulness is no longer something to fear, but rather a
blessing, a balm, a path to peace and forgiveness”. As Friedrich Nietzsche
said, “without forgetting it is quite impossible to live at all.”
The Arts have a completely different relationship to memory
and forgetting. Artists, authors and film makers, learn to simultaneously
remember an impression and forget irrelevant details in order to ensure the
work evokes the intended emotion in the viewer or reader.
Memory is now known to be closely linked to imagination,
something the Greeks had already understood. The Greek Goddess of Memory, Mnemosyne, gave
birth to the nine goddesses of artistic inspiration, the Muses of Epic Poetry,
History, Flute playing, Tragedy, Dancing, Lyre playing, Sacred Song, Astronomy
and Comedy - “Memory is the treasure and guardian of all things” said Cicero.
While memory reminds us of the value of things,
forgetting enables innovation by
clearing the mind of past practices. As Lewis
Hyde says “To forget is to stop holding on, to open the hand of thought”
Durriya Kazi
October 15, 2019
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