![]() ![]() She must be reminded every morning of who she is by her husband (who remains a stranger to her). Watson’s 2011 novel, Before I Go To Sleep, (made into film as well), tells the story of Christine, a woman whose memory span is just 24 hours. ![]() Leonard resorts to polaroid snapshots and tattoos to help bridge the memory gap that occurs every fifteen minutes and prevents him from retaining new information. He can remember everything about his life before his accident, but his brain injury renders him incapable of remembering what happened fifteen minutes ago and thus he has no idea where he is headed or why at any given time. The dark twists and turns create excruciatingly high levels of intrigue and suspense.Īnterograde Amnesia, the inability to form and retain new memories, was the basis for the Christopher Nolan film Memento,in which the main character, Leonard, is trying to track down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The ensuing action suspensefully explores the depth of mistrust and secrets that unfold.Īlfred Hitchcock’s 1945 film classic, Spellbound, showcases a psychiatrist who protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder. ![]() Miles away in London, a young newlywed reports her husband missing when he doesn’t come home. He’s taken in by a local woman who does so against her better judgement. In the thriller I Found You, by Lisa Jewel, a man finds himself sitting on a bench in a coastal English town with no idea of who he is or why he is there. When a dead body is found in the trunk of his car, the fifth victim of a serial killer, the police suspect him, and he begins a desperate attempt to discover who he is and prove his innocence. In the 2019 film Awakea man awakens in the hospital with no memory of his identity or what brought him to the hospital. Retrograde Amnesia is the total memory loss of one’s identify after whatever incident caused such amnesia. Each of them has been used to great effect in both literature and film. They are retrograde, anterograde, dissociative/selective, and psychogenic/global. There are four major recognized types of amnesia. There is an element, however, that can ratchet up the mystery and unknowable to the next level, and that element is amnesia.Īmnesia as a literary device has the power to make time and memory fickle, to further blur motives, and to expand the scope of the unreliable narrator. Probing, examining and attempting to analyze the thoughts and motives of these protagonists and antagonists is what keeps the reader reading and the viewer viewing, for upon this knowledge rests the key to and ultimate resolution of the story. These stories are often tales rife with unreliable narrators, sociopaths, narcissists, and characters with all manner of mental aberrations. The mind is the locus around which everything revolves in a psychological thriller or mystery. ![]()
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