Comments on: I forgot to set this

I forgot to set this

mulligan — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 21:56:57 -0800

$1000 reward to anyone who can produce a published case of "repressed memory" (in fiction or non-fiction) prior to 1800. I figure this is something someone here on MetaFilter could dig up.

By: notmtwain

notmtwain — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:19:14 -0800

Evidently you've been at this for a while.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:40:25 -0800

wait, is mulligan harrison pope? or is he just linking something he found?

By: edgeways

edgeways — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:45:07 -0800

Seems like a question for AskMe moreso than the blue.

By: Ohdemah

Ohdemah — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:47:16 -0800

I have a repressed memory of this being an askMeFi post...if only I had some 18th century documentation...

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:32:18 -0800

Samuel Richardson's Pamela, at or about p. 391 in the Penguin edition.

By: tkolar

tkolar — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:13:12 -0800

So wait, things don't exist unless there's a literature reference before 1800?

By: domch

domch — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:55:59 -0800

Renaissance plays often draw much of their psychological interest from this, no? One of the better known examples: Lady Macbeth's bout of insanity/total breakdown in the light of having assisted with her hubby's regicide. In a broader vein, we might think of the Prospero's retelling/reconfiguring of historical narrative vis-a-vis Caliban and the island's history - but this is more a sociological repression of memory, rather than a psychological one.

By: domch

domch — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 01:02:10 -0800

apologies about the above comment! I re-read the criteria for repressed memory and Lady Macbeth doesn't fit!

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 01:58:38 -0800

Well, I'm not that old, but I can assure you that 'repressed memory' is a real phenomenon. I won't say I 'suffered' from it, as it is easy to see this was a good thing. When the memories returned, it was truly a bizarre experience, and rather frightening. Consider growing up in your teen years with a candy-coated memory of your early years. A big part of thought and experience forgotten. Then at age 25, along comes a cue that opens a flood of memory long buried. Suffice it to say it was not a memory of some horror. But memory is associative, and there were unpleasant things remembered with the good.

By: xanthippe

xanthippe — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 04:14:04 -0800

Um, how would finding a single example, or even several, prove that repressed memory isn't simply a romantic notion invented sometime before 1800?

By: mrmojoflying

mrmojoflying — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 05:46:50 -0800

This is textual idiocy, if not masturbation. These "researchers" commit logical fallacies of confusing cause and effect, and post hoc ergo propter hoc by stating that if a literary textual example of the phenomenon can be found before 1800 then it is the actual *cause* of the phenomenon. This shows no understanding of how discourses or bodies of knowledge are originated more generally, how scientific bodies of knowledge are generated specifically, or the history of the development of "repressed memory" research. It is a real academic shame.

By: qvantamon

qvantamon — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:16:09 -0800

In other news, unless someone can find pre-1900s documentation of relativistic effects, relativity is a romantic notion invented in the 1900s.

By: zpousman

zpousman — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:43:47 -0800

Um, Plato. See the Meno. Can I have my $1000 please?! Sheesh, stupid.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 07:04:20 -0800

zpousman wins hard.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 07:24:24 -0800

Why are people dropping references in the thread, rather then submitting their stuff to these guys? Still, I doubt you could find references to psychological "stress" before the 1800s either, because all of modern psychology developed at that time period, making psychological part of popular knowledge.

By: digaman

digaman — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 08:23:38 -0800

Buddha sat down under the Bodhi tree, meditated, and remembered that he was the Buddha, despite years of wandering in the wilderness of Samsara -- which is actually Nirvana. Ka-ching!

By: HTuttle

HTuttle — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 09:33:27 -0800

Didn't they just burn you as a witch if you experienced something like that back then?

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:03:40 -0800

mrmojoflying has it. This is pretty similar to that guy offering a million bucks for "conclusive proof of macroevolution."

By: davejay

davejay — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:08:59 -0800

I hereby offer $1000* to anyone who can find written reference prior to 1800, fiction or non-fiction, that I cheated on my wife. See, honey, I told you it was your imagination. *as if

By: tkolar

tkolar — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 12:30:44 -0800

delmoi asks... Why are people dropping references in the thread, rather then submitting their stuff to these guys? Because they're far more likely to get a response here then they ever will be to see $1000 from the idiots who offered this "bounty"?

By: jsteward

jsteward — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:55:13 -0800

Repressed memory. Another fun theory from Syracuse. Right up there with Facilitated Communication for people with Autistic Disorder.