S
cientists have zapped an electrical current to people’s brains to erase distressing memories, part of an ambitious quest to better treat ailments such as mental trauma, psychiatric disorders and drug addiction.
In an experiment, patients were first shown a troubling story, in words and pictures. A week later they were reminded about it and given electroconvulsive therapy, formerly known as electroshock. That completely wiped out their recall of the distressing narrative.
Source: The New York Times.
That’s probably not a great idea.
If we get our unwanted memories erased, then we’ll likely make the same devastating mistakes over and over.
Good point. We learn lessons from these memories. We can’t just erase the past and expect everything to work out.
Intersting, but that can also have some scary implications.
This would definitely have the potential to go awry. It would have to be used strictly for medicinal purposes.
That reminds me of 1984 by George Orwell.
It’s definitely a surreal idea.
Hm, interesting that they’ve just now discovered this.
It’s great until they screw up and delete everything
This is definitely still in the beginning stages of research. I’d like to see more work done about this.
I wonder if this would work on happy memories as well? Is the therapy targeting the amydala of the brain?
And by amydala I mean amygdala.
I’m picturing Patrick McGoohan de-programming himself in The Prisoner, by electrocuting himself with a table lamp.