Introduction: The main Character is Lenard; he is an average looking male in his mid to early thirties. At first look one would never think that there is anything wrong with him, he speaks clearly and intelligently, id s polite individual and well-mannered when interacting with others. Lenard does the typical things and daily activities that a normal person does. On sight one can’t tell that, but Lenard has a condition where he cannot recall anything that happens to him within a matter of minutes, things such as people he meets, the conversations he had and places he’s been become distant after a few minutes. The only thing that Lenard is able to remember is those things that happened before the incident that caused his diagnosis. The things that Lenard is able to recall are those things such as his name, who he is, and the way his life was before the traumatic experience. Lenard is incapable of making new memories as well as short term memories. Diagnosis: In the film Lenard tells people that he has short term memory loss, this isn’t the case though, Lenard’s disorder is in fact more serious then he knows. Lenard has; individuals who have this condition like Lenard have difficulties remembering parts of their lives from a single event or numerous events that have occurred. Dissociative amnesia typically occurs when a traumatic event happens in that individual’s life. For Lenard, the traumatic event that occurred in his life was the rapping and murder of his wife which occurred in their own house while Lenard was asleep, then awoke to see what was going on, to which he was hit across the head with a gun which caused his condition, then left laying besides his lifeless wife on the bathroom floor, Symptoms & Axis I-V: The DSM... ... middle of paper ... ...ma he encountered didn’t occur. Works Cited: DSM-IV-TR. (n.d.). American Psychiatric Association. Memento. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Landmark, 2000. DVD. Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Etiology. Retrieved November 9, 2013 from Merriam- Webster: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etiology NCBI. (n.d.) Us National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health. Retrieved November 9, 2013, from PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16791779 Psychotherapy And Counseling. (n.d.). Dissociative Amnesia – DSMIV Definition. Retrieved November 9, 2013, from the DSM IV: http://psychotherapyandcounseling.org/dissociative-disorders- category/dissociative-amnesia Whitbourne, S. K., & Haligan, R. P. (2013). Abnormal Psychology: Clinical Perspectives on Psychological Disorders, Seventh Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
On February 14, 2008, Steven Kazmierczak took less than two minutes to open fire on a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing five, injuring eighteen, and finally taking his own life. Although he had a history of mental illness, Kazmierczak had been given the Dean’s Award, the highest honor an undergraduate of NIU can receive, attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and sought counseling for his mental illness. From the outside, it appeared that he had taken control of his life, described as “being so nice he must be a mass murderer” by faculty members at NIU. To say the least, his killing spree and subsequent suicide came as a shock to those who knew him, and it is difficult
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Durand, M., & Barlow, D. (2013). Essentials of abnormal psychology. (6 ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Haglin, R. P. & Whitbourne, S. K. (2010). Abnormal psychology: clinical perspectives on psychological disorders. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Butcher, J., Mineka, S., & Hooley, J. M. (2003). Abnormal psychology. (12th ed.) Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.
Memory is a dynamic part of everyday life. It helps people function and communicate with each other without a second thought. This communication and function can be hindered if the person experiences a traumatic event. There are two main forms of trauma, physical and emotional, each of which can cause major damage to the victims mind. Both types can cause a person to have flashbacks to the traumatic event or even temporary amnesia. In his novel Remainder, Tom McCarthy uses The Narrator to demonstrate a case of physical trauma where The Narrator has an object fall on his head placing him in a coma. The second type of trauma, emotional trauma, is represented by Grandfather in Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Everything is Illuminated where grandfather experiences a traumatic situation when he was younger but represses the memory of what happened. Foer uses Grandfather to demonstrate the struggle to overcome the trauma when he chooses to repress his memories, as opposed to McCarthy who uses The Narrator to show the initial success at overcoming trauma when there is no choice to repress the memories or not due to a case of amnesia. The Narrator uses a series of re-enactments in order to try to become more flaccid, due to the loss of memory and need to relearn every movement he makes caused by the traumatic event that he experiences.
It is also known as dissociative amnesia. It is a disorder that happens after a traumatic event. The person going through this type of amnesia is blocking the painful event out of their heads. The person with this disorder goes through severe depression and has a sudden loss of whom they are or where they are, lasting for a few hours to a few days. They are able to form new memories.
Imagine having a memory of a very traumatic event resurface in your mind after forgetting about it for twenty years. That is what happened to Eileen Franklin in 1989 when she had recovered what is called a repressed memory of her father, George Franklin, killing her friend in 1969, which eventually lead to her father getting a sentence of life in prison (Beaver, 1996). A repressed memory is a memory that is not forgotten, but is a memory of something traumatic that is blocked and not recovered unless triggered by something. Although her descriptions of the event were very vivid, describing colors and sounds, most of what she described could be proven inaccurate. Some of what she described was information that was misreported in newspapers that she had probably read or been told about in the past. This is an example of the misinformation effect. Misinformation effect is when someone is misled by information about an event that they witnessed and has an effect on how they remember that event later. This is just one example of how the misinformation effect can change how an event is described.
Amnesia affects the memory. People diagnosed with amnesia lose memories that occur before the onset of amnesia. Amnesia affects the memory, how well you can store long term memory. If amnesia occurs, one might have trouble with long term memory in the future, or simply forget most of their past. Due to the brains plasticity, the brain can use association areas to help build memory. Amnesia commonly comes in two forms that occur together: Retrograde amnesia and Anterograde amnesia.
The American Psychiatric Association. (APA) (1994): Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental disorders. (4thed). Washington DC: Author
If one has amnesia, they will have difficulty recalling facts, events, places, or specific detail (Barclay, 2016). The details can range from what one ate this morning to their birthday. Hollywood has fabricated the idea that by suffering with amnesia the first signs of symptoms include losing self-identify and ability to function normally. However, that type of amnesia is very rare and in reality, one with amnesia will still retain your motor skills, such as your ability to walk, as well as fluency in any languages you speak, and self-identity. In addition, there are many different types of amnesia with a wide range of
Imagine going about your daily business when, for some reason or another, you find yourself immersed in an intense, disturbing flashback of a traumatic event that you never knew you experienced? This bizarre scenario is more commonplace than might be supposed and is opening up all sorts of legal and therapeutic controversy. Repression is one of the most haunting concepts in psychology. The rationale is that some shocking occurrence is pushed back into an inaccessible corner of the unconscious only to be retrieved later by a most confounded consciousness (1). Is the memory really real? If it is, why was it lost in the first place and what triggered its return? And how is it to be dealt with?
When a loved one in your life is suffering from dissociative amnesia, it can be devastating to witness. Your loved one may not remember important events or people in his or her life and may experience confusion or disorientation on a daily basis. If you are confused about how you can help, know that the best support you can provide is helping your loved one get professional help. Learn how to be a support factor in the life of someone suffering from dissociative amnesia.
Barlow, D., Durand, V., & Stewart, S. (2009). Abnormal psychology an integrative apporach. (2nd ed.). United States of America: Wadsworth
...fugue amnesia): This covers episodes of amnesia linked to psychological trauma. It is usually temporary and can be triggered by a traumatic event with which the mind finds it difficult to deal. Usually, the memory slowly or suddenly comes back a few days later, although memory of the trauma may remain incomplete.