Psychogenic amnesia

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Psychogenic Amnesia is a form of amnesia popularized by popular culture, particularly film, related to trauma or general psychological disorientation. It is not the result of specific brain injury or disease.

In the most radical form, also called fugue state, people forget their name, family, and other identifying information. The rarity of cases leaves some doubt as to whether or not psychogenic amnesia is a real phenomenon. This is also called autobiographical amnesia.

A much more common form of psychogenic amnesia is dissociative amnesia, where a person cannot recall a particular event or period of time, such as events during a violent crime. In general the memory loss must be more extensive than ordinary "forgetting". It is theorized that the information is too difficult or painful to retain. Because dissociative amnesia is a psychological phenomenon (not physiological) therapy can help with retrieving the information.

Contents 1 Psychogenic Amnesia in Fiction 1.1 Fugue State 1.2 Dissociative 2 Psychogenic Amnesia in Fact 3 References

[edit] Psychogenic Amnesia in Fiction

[edit] Fugue State

• The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Identity
• Jackie Chan's Who Am I?
• Clean Slate
• Overboard
• The Long Kiss Goodnight

[edit] Dissociative

• The Year of Magical Thinking

[edit] Psychogenic Amnesia in Fact

• Documentary - Unknown White Male

[edit] References

• Prinzmetal, Bill. UC Berkeley "Issues in Cognitive Science" Lecture slides. Full lecture as pdf
• "Memory Loss & The Brain" from Rutgers University.