How Amnesia is Portrayed in Hollywood

Ryan Scheidt

Understanding Amnesia

Amnesia refers to the loss of memories, such as facts, information, and experiences. People effected by amnesia will have a difficult time learning new information and forming new memories. Amnesia is most commonly caused by damage to the brain in areas such as the thalmus and the hippocampal formations. Other causes of amnesia could be due to strokes, brain inflammation caused by viruses from other diseases such as herpes, a lack of oxygen from a heart attack, alcohol abuse, and some types of medication.

Although there are situations where individuals only experience temporary memory loss, amnesia usually refers to a permanent loss of memory. Amnesia is different from a disease such as dementia because individuals still have similar intelligence, general knowledge, awareness, attention span, judgement, personality, or other traits. It is likely that for an individual with amnesia, short-term memory will be the most difficult to remember. Unfortunately, there is no cure for amnesia. Patients can work with occupational therapists and other professionals in order to try to replace older memories. Also, technology such as smartphones can assist those affected giving them the ability to have an easily accessible daily planner that alerts them for important events such as when to take medications. There are many different types of amnesia as it can affect people in different ways. Overall, it is most important for individuals affected to find the most effective way to deal with these obstacles.

How Amnesia is Portrayed in Hollywood

Amnesia has always been a fairly common plot device used in movies to create a twist in the story. However, Hollywood sometimes portrays amnesia incorrectly. As stated in the Mayo Clinic website, "Though forgetting your identity is a common plot device in movies and television, that's not generally the case in real-life amnesia." Another example comes from Yehuda Ben-Yishay, the director of the Brain Injury Day Treatment Program at New York University Hospitals Center. Yehuda states, ''The typical movie thing where the guy is just fine except that he can't remember who he is, doesn't recognize his wife -- that's a fiction, and when I see these movies, I am laughing at the naivete and stupidity of it, I have never seen a patient who does not remember his name and at least some significant part of his history. '' This being said, there are movies that project mostly correct symptoms of amnesia. Below is a list of movies that show both good and bad portrayal of amnesia.

Good Portrayal

Finding Nemo

Within the movie Finding Nemo is a well known character named Dory. Dory is a blue fish that attempts to assist the main character, Marlin, find his son who is lost. Throughout the movie Dory displays signs of amnesia and even mentions that she knows that she has short term memory loss. Although not known how Dory recieved amnesic symptoms, the way she is portrayed in the movie is more correct than many other movies. Dory has difficulty learning names, remembering information she was told just minutes ago, and remembering where and why she is going where she is going. Also, the frustration that is shown by the fish that associate themselves with Dory are accurate representations to the difficulties those dealing with patients with amnesia may experience. Below is a clip that illustrates Dory's amnesia. Before the clip begins, Dory tells Marlin she knows which way his son went and that he should follow her. What happens in the clip is immediately after Dory tells Marlin to follow her.

Memento

Memento is referred to as one of the most accurate movies to portray amnesia. In the movie Memento, the main character, Leonard, is involved in an attack against him and his wife and suffers serious head injuries. This results in him forming amnesia. Leonard's main goal throughout the movie is to get revenge on the people that attacked him and killed his wife. Throughout the movie Leonard constantly re-introduces himself to individuals and tells them about his amnesia. However, Leonard's past as well as his personality and identity have remained unchanged. Also, instead of using technology as listed earlier in the site, Leonard uses sticky notes and tattoos in order to constantly remind himself to get stuff done, who someone is, or what is important to him at that particular time. In the clip below, you will see Leonard have a conversation with a man that knows him, but who he cannot remember. Also, you will see Leonard's process of reminding himself of important information.

Poor Portrayal

Overboard

The movie Overboard is a great example of how Hollywood uses amnesia more as a plot device, rather than using and projecting it as the legitimate disorder that it is. In the movie Overboard, the main character, Joanna, falls from a boat and injures her head. Although a real way to receive amnesia, the symptoms that follow are not a real representation of amnesia. In the movie Joanna goes from being a rich, spoiled, and rude woman before her fall to a loving and caring mother after her fall. In reality, individuals with amnesia do not experience identity changes.

The Bourne Identity

Although The Bourne Identity is not completely wrong with its concepts of amnesia, some of the most important plot devices used throughout the movie display amnesia incorrectly. Jason Bourne is the main character and in the beginning of the movie he is saved from the ocean where he was laying unconscious with three bullet wounds in his back. He wakes up on the boat that saved him and has no idea who he is or where he came from unlike the most common forms of amnesia in which people remember the past events that are imprinted on their minds, but forget the new information they are told unlike Jason who seems to have a flawless ability to recall information throughout the rest of the movie. Also, for those who do forget moments in their past, the oldest events are usually the first to return to them. However, in The Bourne Identity, Jason's first memory that returns to him is a memory of what happened to him immediately before the incident that caused his memory loss. In the clip below it shows how Jason is able to remember events that have happened to him recently, but completely unable to remember his past.

How This Affects the World Today

Although an issue that poses no serious threat to society, Hollywood's ability to create abstract references about medical disorders and pass them as the truth is a problem. People who watch some of these movies and have no knowledge on amnesia could believe what they see in the movie to be true. Amnesia is a serious condition and it is important for people to understand it because it is something that could happen to, or effect anybody. A family that needs to deal with amnesia may have a negative connotation towards amnesia due to how it is portrayed in movies. Although there are good examples of amnesia, none of them are perfect. However, Hollywood is Hollywood and their main intentions are to create exciting content for their audiences. Many of these movies are not documentaries focusing on portraying amnesia correctly. Regardless, companies should note that the content they produce is not an accurate representation of amnesia or its symptoms.

References

Amnesia. (2017, August 25). Retrieved December 05, 2017, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amnesia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353360

Health | Finding Nemo 'gets amnesia right'. (2004, December 24). Retrieved December 05, 2017, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4101431.stm

Movie Amnesia vs. Real Amnesia: Hollywood Rarely Portrays Amnesia Correctly . (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2017, from https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/moviemem.html

Perez-Pena, R. (2003, November 2). An Accurate Movie About Amnesia? Forget About It. New York Times, p. 28.

Sano, Y. (2005). Memory Loss and Memento. Retrieved December 05, 2017, from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro05/web2/ysano.html

Talarico, J. (2016, August 05). What the Bourne films get right and wrong about amnesia. Retrieved December 05, 2017, from https://apnews.com/0bdefdfe2dca46648c02e223156e21ac/what-bourne-films-get-right-and-wrong-about-amnesia

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