Essay Sample on Memory Loss Disorder in Movies: 50 First Dates

Introduction

Memory loss is generally referred to as unusual forgetfulness or amnesia. This is a disorder where the victim is not able to come up with new memories after the incident, which caused memory loss. Even though memories that happened before the incident may remain in some case, the victim often has difficulty recalling the immediate past. As the video suggests, diagnosis of the disorder is done through various tests such as imaging scan, blood tests, electroencephalogram, cognitive tests, and physical examinations to determine whether the condition is short term or long term. The memory evaluation is essential in determining the type of memory loss the victim is suffering from. The movie 50 First Dates came in mind as soon as we started learning about memory loss. In the film, the character Lucy suffers from anterograde amnesia, even though in the film is referred as Goldfield's syndrome.

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To begin with, 50 First Dates is a conventional love story starring Drew Barrymore (Lucy) and Adam Sandler (Henry). The setting is on a Hawaiian island where most of the tourists, Henry is a well-known ladies man until he meets Lucy and falls in love with her instantly. Henry is surprised that only a day after meeting Lucy, she had no recollection of him and the moments they spent together. He then learns that she suffers from a rare memory loss condition that originated from brain damage after an accident. The condition makes her relive each day as it had never happened since her brain could not store memories past a day. Despite the misfortune, Henry feels that he can make Lucy remember him by capturing her heart. The character is unable to recall short term memories since after sleeping every night, she wakes up believing it's the day of the boating accident. The movie takes various liberties with memory loss disorder symptoms through the way it is depicted and the way the concept is employed in the plot.

Even though the movie was not a box office success, it contains a large amount of accurate information about the disorder. It is apparent that Lucy suffered from permanent brain damage in her temporal lobe, which stores new memories and visual memories. Thus she suffers from anterograde amnesia, which prevents the brain from forming new memories after a traumatic incident like an accident. In this scenario, Lucy cannot remember anything that happened after the accident, which is an accurate symptom of amnesia. Marslen-Wilson and Teuber (2010) suggest that people suffering from this condition are often stuck in time as their brains are not able to encode new memories and store them since they are made inaccessible to the victim (Marslen-Wilson & Teuber, 2010). In other words, the person is not aware of the memories that exist as they perpetually believe that it's the day of the accident, just like in 50 First dates.

Additionally, one of the films funniest moments happens to be an accurate depiction of memory loss. While Lucy can remember new memories lasting for a day, the character named "10 second Tom" can only remember memories for ten seconds. This situation is very accurate since anterograde amnesia often varies, resulting in large disparities in how long memories stick in their brains. Even though ten seconds might seem unreal, it is unfortunately very real. For instance, one of the most famous cases involved an Englishman, Clive Wearing, who could not remember events past seven seconds. Another reality depicted in 50 First Dates vict6ims who have severe amnesia are forced to live in healthcare settings or institutions where they can be closely monitored and protected by healthcare personnel. You can only imagine how stressful the condition is as any new invention would scare the victim as time goes on. Apart from the patient, the condition is also stressful to the family. For instance, in Clive's case, her children decided to stop visiting him in hospital as he aged since he was not able to recognize them or any of their past visits. They realized that the visits were of no help and only brought unhappy memories since they had no impact on their father.

Even though the depiction of the condition was fairly accurate in the film, there were instances where I noticed the representation was not accurate. In 50 First Dates, the amnesia is prompted by sleep as her mind seems to reset itself every time she is asleep. Even though anterograde amnesia victims are actually stuck in time since they are not able to access newly encoded memories, it is highly unlikely that they can be able to recall a whole day as shown in the movie. In most cases, anterograde amnesia patients can only hold their memories for minutes or hours; a day seems to be a very long time. The closest thing to such a condition is referred as preservation, which involves the repetition of responses. According to Baddeley and Warrington (2017), sleep should not be a situation that prompts the condition. Contrary, it should be the process the helps in the consolidation of memories (Baddeley & Warrington, 2017). Lucy also has a form of amnesia referred as Goldfield's syndrome. It is apparent the name is a fictional condition made up by the directors or the writers of the movie. She also has a brother and a father who are very caring. Spending time with her every day and looking after her during her predicament as they even stretch their limits to trick her into avoiding the reality of her condition. In fact, most victims do not enjoy such luxury of family members stopping their endeavors to take care of the patient exclusively. Most victims are taken to health facilities where they are taken care of by health professionals since they understand the condition better.

Conclusion

In summation, 50 First Dates takes various liberties with memory loss disorder symptoms through the way it is depicted and the way the concept is employed in the plot. Most of its depiction of the disorder are accurate even though there are various scenario where the product failed to nail significant aspects of the disorder. Thus, there are various aspects that can be improved in the movie to depict memory loss more realistically. First, even though it might sound lame, the decision of the producer to use a factious name did not help in making the movie more accurate. I would suggest that they could have used amnesia instead of Goldfield's syndrome. Furthermore, since anterograde amnesia is a serious memory loss disorder, it would be more realistic if the setting of the movie would be in a hospital or healthcare facility.

References

Baddeley, A. D., & Warrington, E. K. (2017). Amnesia and the distinction between long-and short-term memory 1. In Exploring working memory (pp. 18-38). Routledge.

Marslen-Wilson, W. D., & Teuber, H. L. (2010). Memory for remote events in anterograde amnesia: recognition of public figures from newsphotographs. Neuropsychologia, 13(3), 353-364.

Segal, P. (2005). 50 First Dates. Columbia TriStar.