Anterograde Amnesia and

Memento

Psychology Basis

Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia,

leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact.

Media

In the movie “Memento” Leonard Shelby has short term memory loss resulting from an injury he sustained which was associated with the murder of his wife. He remembers his life prior to the incident, such as being an insurance claims investigator. He has learned to cope with his memory loss through dealing with a man named Sammy Jankis, a person he investigated professionally who also had short term memory issues.

Some of these coping mechanism are to have a system of where to place things, talk to people face-to-face if possible rather than on the telephone as to be able to gauge their true intention, take Polaroid snapshots and write copious notes, the most important of those he tattoos on his body so that they become permanent.

Over the course of a day, Leonard is assisted by a few people seemingly independent of each other, including a man named Teddy and a woman named Natalie. However, each time he meets them, he has no idea who they are, why they are helping him and if indeed they are working toward the same goal as him.

LeonardTeddy

Trying to understand who is a friend and who is an enemy

Trying to gain Leonard’s trust over and over again

Connection

Throughout the movie, Leonard is utilizing all available rescores to overcome his amnesia

Once he founds a “fact” he takes notes to be used when his memory resets.

The big “facts” get tattooed on his skin so he can refresh his memory by simply looking in a mirror

Validity

At no point in the movie is Leonardo’s memory loss described as Anterograde Amnesia. In fact, he denies having amnesia all together:

“I don't have amnesia. I remember everything about myself up until the incident”

I remember everything about myself up until the incident

Anterograde Amnesia

In the medical world

Symptom

My Take

The writers picked up a solid idea for a movie inspired by a true condition.

They neglected to recognize it as amnesia.

It is also possible the medical term wasn’t important to the plot, or the patient didn’t have the necessary medical knowledge of his condition.

References

www.wikipidia.com www.imdb.com Google Images