Until recently, she had appeared in case studies in medical journals
anonymously. Her name is Jill Price and she can tell you what happened on
October 24, 1985 or on the first Tuesday in March of 2003. For the past 28
years, since the age of 14, she can tell you everything about her life, every
mundane detail of every day – and whatever world events she was aware of at that
time.
Scientists say that she has “hyperthymestic syndrome” and her case is the only documented one in the world. Many people she has encounters thinks her condition must be “fun,” a really great gift to have. But Ms. Price, whose brain does not look like the average brain, does not see her experience as a “fun” one and has written about feeling “assaulted” and “imprisoned.”
“It’s involuntary,” she says “…uncontrollable and
random.” One thing she does not have is the protection of a fading memory, not
having to recall insignificant trifles or having the “rawness” of emotions and
experiences constantly with her. “In real life, I do move on, but in my head, I
don’t. I’m constantly beating myself up over, angry about this or regretting
that.”
For most people, longer term memory comes from vivid or particularly forceful
attention in a particular experience. Nature has us discard unnecessary elements
which will not be useful to future experience, such as what I had for breakfast
18 months ago on this day.
We usually have to work consciously or live an experience profoundly for it to remain in our memory over a long period. What we draw from our experiences are not usually the details of the experience, but lessons which help us when we encounter similar situations in life. And this, rarely if ever, is automatic.
When we think of “blessings” in life, they rarely come in
the form of things that happen “automatically” without consciousness. We should
be thankful that we do not remember everything and remember to attend well in
meaningful experiences in which we wish to retain something.
