In this memory assignment, I analyzed how they portrayed anterograde amnesia in the movie "Fifty-first dates". This assignment served to help us better understand how mental illnesses are portrayed in the media. Fifty-first dates, a romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore is the story of a man who falls in love with a woman who has been diagnosed with anterograde amnesia. Every day he must win her over again because she can’t even remember last nights date! (Segal, 2004). Anterograde amnesia is a form of memory loss that affects the ability of memories to become transferred from the short term to the long-term memory, usually after a traumatizing accident (Kasschau, 2001). Patients with anterograde amnesia often can recall memories of events prior to the incident responsible for the memory deficit but have severely impaired abilities to anamnesis information about events occurring after the incident (McLeod, S. A. 2011).
Anterograde amnesia is a disorder that can be permanent or short-term, (Human-memory.net, 2018). Damages to the memory-making part of the brain; the fornix, hippocampus, and mammillary bodies are the main cause of amnesia's onsets (Cherney, 2017). The symptoms of anterograde amnesia primarily affect short-term memory processing; the impairment of the semantic and episodic memory (Cherney, 2017). Interestingly, most people with anterograde amnesia are able to remember how to do things, such as ride a bike or play an instrument but are not able to recall when and how they learned it. This phenomenon was observed in the case study of H.M, a man who underwent brain surgery to ease the severe symptoms of epilepsy (Kasschau, 2001). Although his surgery alleviated his epileptic seizures, he was completely unable to transfer any new information into his long-term memory, however, his cognitive functioning was normal (Kasschau, 2001). He was able to learn and he remembered how to interact with the environment, but he needed reminding of what he was capable of doing (Kasschau, 2001).Currently, there are no treatments that can essentially cure amnesia, but instead, treatments concentrate on managing the patient’s condition (Cherney, 2017). In 50 first dates, Lucy Whitmore, the main character, is in a car accident a couple years prior to the movie. As a result, she suffers from anterograde amnesia, the film describes it as “the loss of her short-term memory” (Segal, 2004). Every night when she falls asleep, her memory is restored to the day of her accident. When Henry Roth, falls in love with her, he must continually reintroduce himself over and over again, making every day like their first date. Lucy’s family and friends are very protective of her and take very good care of Lucy. Her father and her brother spend everyday recreating the day of the accident, which happens to be the father birthday, they go through elaborate schemes to “trick” her into avoiding the reality of her condition. Near the end of the movie, Henry makes a video documentary of every major event that has occurred since the time of her accident which he shows lucy every morning when she gets up. Lucy is quite disturbed at the beginning but after a short period of time, she adjusts to this new reality and keeps going on with her day (Segal, 2004). One very common treatment for those who have anterograde amnesia is keeping a diary. (Cherney, 2017). This is mirrored in 50 first dates as every night Lucy writes in her diary to remember her adventures with Henry. Overall, 50 first dates is a quite accurate portrayal of someone with anterograde amnesia however, there are some faults in the movie. The first inaccuracy is the fact that most amnesia patients don’t have the luxury of a support system who can stop their own lives to devote all of their time exclusively to the patient. Second, Lucy allegedly has a form of amnesia called “Goldfield’s Syndrome.” (Segal,2004). This term is not an actual disease, as it was made up solely for the purpose of the film (Goodfriend, 2012). The film also refers to her disease as “short-term memory loss” nevertheless, it is incorrect due to the fact that there is nothing wrong with her short-term memory itself, rather the ability of the brain to encode the information into the long-term memory (Goodfriend, 2012). The reality of anterograde amnesia matches the film very closely, as anterograde amnesia is typically caused by an accident that damages the brain (Human-memory.net, 2018). In the film, Lucy has permanent brain damage due to her car accident. Essentially patients with anterograde amnesia are “stuck in time” they are unable to encode memories into their long-term memory and as a result, they believe that every day is the day the amnesia commenced, just like in the film (Cherney, 2017). Anterograde amnesia is a serious brain condition that decreases your ability to retain new information(Kasschau, 2001).The movie 50 first dates clearly illustrates the conditions of people who have been diagnosed with the disease, even though there are minor inaccuracies. Lucy wakes up everyday forgetting everything from the day before, however with the help of her diary and paintings, she starts dreaming about a mysterious man named Henry (Segal, 2004). References McLeod, S. A. (2011). Anterograde amnesia Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/anterograde-amnesia.html Kasschau, Richard A. (2001). Glencoe understanding psychology. New York, N.Y. :Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, Kristeen Cherney, 2017. Anterograde amnesia. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/amnesia/anterograde-amnesia Goodfriend,Wind 2012. Amnesia in '50 First Dates'. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psychologist-the-movies/201212/amnesia-in-50-first-dates Human-memory.net 2018, The Human memory , Retrieved from http://www.human-memory.net/disorders_anterograde.html Segal, Peter. (Director). (2004). 50 First Dates. [Motion Picture]. United States: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Debasis, Sahu 2010, Short term memory loss or Anterograde Amnesia, Retrieved from https://www.biotecharticles.com/Biology-Article/Short-Term-Memory-Loss-Or-Anterograde-Amnesia-474.html
1 Comment
Mrs. Colpitts
4/4/2018 07:27:32 pm
This is awesome! You have done a great job with your in-text citations. I particularly like how well you have integrated different sources into your 2nd paragraph. Each adds a lot to your information and the variety of source increased the legitimacy of your writing. This was also the perfect place to reference H.M. Great summary of the movie- you've made it easy to understand how the condition is portrayed and why it's important to the story. I really like that you've pointed out the unrealistic support system. You've done an excellent job of identifying the problems with how the condition is portrayed in the film as well as the strengths. Again, excellent job incorporating citations. Great reference selection. You have 2 minor areas of improvement: 1) spend a bit more time editing, you've got some minor typos. 2) The bibliography needs to be in alphabetical order by author last name. Please see the APA citation guides I've given you for me. Excellent job Jen! 39/40
Reply
Leave a Reply. |