WHY WE FORGET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 9 April 1924, Page 7

WHY WE FORGET

JTonert , nr/ ' e stat,stlcs of the Lost m “ l f } i o lCe ’ , we are yearly becoming mine and more forgetful. It is comput ed that m London alone the yearly aiue of lost articles is about £IOO 000 so that- if we take the whole country 1i t T St h c c , v - cv y considerable inneed. In face of this pecuniary loss, and uie 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 also a normal and very useful function, writes a physician in the Daily Mail. Until quite recently forgetting was looked upon as a passive process due to Jack of interest on our part. According .to this view we largely forget those things which are uninteresting or unimportant. We are now coming to realise that forget■mg is an active process or protective mechanism by which we are unwittingt P* < ?^ e£ d t> d from painful and uncomfortable influences. It works spontaneously and totally without our conscious knowledge. If we try to forget something unpleasant we only succeed in wore .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, although they may be valuables are always associated in our unconscious mind with some painful or unpleasant memory. The unpleasant associations may be only indirectly connected with the thing itself, as when we leave some article of value behind us in the train, owing to a conscious ,or even unconscious, objection to carrying p:\p.ey parcels. Unfortunately, the protective mechanism of forgetting works far the comfort and pleasure of the present, taking no account of ulti--mate consequences. Hence although it protects us for the time being, it may in the long run cause trouble and inconvenience, or maybe pecuniary loss. But althought forgetting leads to the loss of our property, at times it undoubtedly shields U 3 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, if remembered, would unremittingly insist upon our grief.