Personal memories encoded during a fugue are generally never recovered

November 21, 2016 1:20 PM

He appeared out of nowhere. He had no name, no memory, no past. He was the only person the FBI ever listed as missing even though they knew where he was. How could B.K. Doe remain anonymous in the modern age’s matrix of observation?

(Benjamin Kyle previously on MeFi)
posted by Chrysostom (14 comments total)

Holy shit, I'm not used to articles like this having any kind of conclusion.
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:53 PM on November 21, 2016 [8 favorites]

Yeah, ADVISORY NOTE: This story rambles on in a way that is all too typical for web articles, but please note that there *IS* a resolution to the mystery.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:01 PM on November 21, 2016 [8 favorites]

Note: he had spelled his "fugue" name Benjaman Kyle, and that's how it's in the tag in the previous FPP.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:32 PM on November 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

Wow, one of those 'thought-provoking' final sentences that actually hits pretty hard.
posted by abrightersummerday at 2:41 PM on November 21, 2016 [5 favorites]

Wow. That's fascinated me since I read it here in the previously link. This was a bit of a wordy way to finish the story, but it's an answer I didn't think I'd ever know and it was a nice read. Now I wonder even more about the missing guy I mentioned in the previous link. Especially since Kansas and mobile homes were in this updated story and my mystery was at a mobile home in Kansas shortly before the 2004 arrival of Benjaman/William at the Burger King.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:45 PM on November 21, 2016

I wonder if some variation of Korsakoff's syndrome could be responsible? Usually there is some anterograde amnesia, but there is always the chance that this is an atypical case.
posted by Mitrovarr at 3:04 PM on November 21, 2016

I can't imagine the kind of trauma that could cause something like this. You have to wonder if he would have been better off not finding out who he was.
posted by tommasz at 3:13 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Finding out who he was has given him an independent source of income and contact with his brother.

That final sentence, though.
posted by annathea at 4:08 PM on November 21, 2016 [5 favorites]

I've helped find a few missing/dissociated people over the years. It's always weird, but satisfying. One was a postal worker from Japan who had followed "voices" to the US, got mugged, and ended up living rough, in the streets, for over a decade with no interaction with police or the mental health system. Got repatriated. Another was a person who had been living in a decrepit house for over a decade with no income, eventually reduced to cooking and eating local squirrels and the neighbours' pets. We managed to find that person's parents, who had given them up for dead a long time ago.
posted by meehawl at 7:03 PM on November 21, 2016 [13 favorites]

Not quite a happy ending but a satisfying one. It sounds like he came from a very dysfunctional family that had negative, lifelong repercussions for him and his brothers. One seems to have become a hoarder and the other won't speak to him. Your brother has been missing for decades and you won't speak to him? Some very damaged people but at least he and the one brother have a relationship and he now has some security and stability.
posted by shoesietart at 7:10 AM on November 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

Very poignant exploration of personhood/identity; well-written, compassionate; thanks for posting.
posted by progosk at 11:12 AM on November 22, 2016

Fascinating and very sad. I also wonder, on top of the abuse, about innate/endogenous conditions he may have- the hoarding, the lack of emotional connection, the obsessive attention to mechanical detail (reading magazines about restaurant fixtures and such). Not to armchair diagnose, but made me think of Aspergers or maybe OCD even. Perhaps the combination of extreme isolation and abuse just rattling around in his mind with no resolution just made him fall apart. Strange how emotional despair can translate so literally into an almost neurological/physical condition.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 11:41 AM on November 22, 2016

Hey he's from Lafayette IN, same as Axl Rose.
posted by anazgnos at 4:12 PM on November 22, 2016

Fascinating and personal. I have this amnesia, but it's not so complete (there are some hints that still large chunks of my past are still missing from memory). But I know who I am. When I was 25, the first break happened, where I first remembered stuff. A couple years ago, more came up, maybe more that explains why I forgot so much of my past. I'm in my late 50s. It's weird to have this stuff come up after so long of not worrying about it.
posted by Goofyy at 3:07 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]