WHY WE FORGET

Evening Post, Issue 88, 12 April 1924, Page 16

WHY WE FORGET

ASSOCIATION WITH PAINFUL MEMORIES. ... .

According to the statistics of the Lost Property Office, we are yearly becoming more and more forgetful. It is computed that in London alone the yearly value of lost articles is about £100,000, so that if •wo take the whole country the loss must be very considerable indeed. ■ In faco of this pecuniary loss, and "'the many other inconveniences lapse of memory, entails, it would, at.first sight, seem ,that forgetting is a particularly useless mental process. Careful investigation, however, shows" that(not only is forgetting practically as common as remembering, but that it is only a normal..and very useful function, writes a- physician in the "Daily Mail."' : Until quite re-, cently forgetting was looked upon as a uassivo.process due to iack of interest on: our part.: According to this view wo largely forget those things which am uninteresting or unimportant. We are now coming to 'realise that forgetting is an active process or protective mechanism by which we are unwittingly protected from painful and uncomfortable influences.. It works spontaneously and totally without'our conscious knowledge. ,lf we try to forget something unpleasant we only succeed in.fixing it mora firmly in our memory. The question, "Why do we forget?" is perhaps best answered by considering what .we forget. Systematic analysis shows that things forgotten, althoueh they may be valuable, are always asso dated in our unconscious . minds with Rome painful or unpleasant memory. The unpleasant associations may be ohlv indirectly connected witli tlie • thing itself, as when we leave some article of value behind us in tho train owing to a conscious, or /even unconscious', "obje.:-' t.ion to carrying paper parcels. Unfortunately, the protective mechanism of forgetting works for the comfort and plnssure of the present, taking no ac«ount of the. ultimate consequences Hence.'although it protects us for thp time being, it may in the long run causa trouble ,and inconvenience, or ma->--bo neeuniary loss. But although: forgetting leads to the loss of our property at times it undoubtedly shields us from many painful memories and makes life more endurable. We never forget the loss of a dear relative or friend, but we do -forget a thousand and one incidents that occurred at the same time, which, >r rememhored, wouid unroraittinglv iusut upon our grief.- .