We are all- to some extent- Henry Molaisens Have you heard about Henry Molaison? Well, he was the man suffering of devastating epilepsy, which threatened his life. In 1953 he was operated in his brain and got removed his hippocampus and amygdala. He survived the operation and became free of his epileptic seizures. But instead he got a new problem- He was not able to generate new memories. In fact his memory span was between 30 to 60 seconds, and he could not retain it longer. This person, who became renown, being the object of intense research for many years, lived basically in the very immediate present, without any sense of future. Now, what his symptoms have got to do with us, people with more or less intact brains? Most of us live very much in our immediate present, attending our needs, rituals, family, social and professional engagements, being constantly brainwashed by commercialism, talk of the town, political pep talk, recreational and health topics etc. In the meantime the future is unfolding in front of us, and we don´t wish to see it, `cause it means great trouble. We don´t dare to face and address the future problem of a certain decaying, unsustainable civilization. So we do have our hippocampus and amygdala intact, but we ignore the future, because we feel helpless to deal with it. Ergo-anxiety and constant brainwashing can do more or less the same job as removing amygdala and hippocampus. Therefore we are all- to some extent- Henry Molaisens.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 09:19:52 +0000
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