In responding to the two student below , share your thoughts on their examples. Did they point out legitimate problems with the portrayal of memory loss in their chosen novel or movie? Do you see any other inaccuracies they missed, or other ways in which a real-life person would react differently than the fictional characters?
Maura post
My chosen movie for this discussion is Overboard (1987), where the main character played by Goldie Hawn is an overbearing entitled wealthy socialite, and while on her yacht, she falls overboard and hits her head and loses consciousness. Her poor single handyman, played by Kurt Russell, to whom she treats with little regard, is the one to retrieves her from the water and brings her back aboard. Once she comes to, he realizes she has no memory of who she is, so he convinces her she is his wife and the mother to his three unruly children. With her amnesia, she becomes a kind and caring mother and wife who tries desperately to remember how to care for her so-called family. All is going along nicely until she hit her head again, causing a reversal to her original amnesia.
The issues with her amnesia that are not in question are her ability to learn new tasks to care for the people in her care is supported by Goldstein (2015) "people can retain skills from the past and learn new ones." This speaks to her ability to learn how to perform the daily tasks of caring for a family she didn't have before the accident. The issue of Goldie Hawn's's character takes on a whole new personality is a bit preposterous. Baxendale (2004) who states, "personality and identity are unaffected. These distinctions, which is a medical setting, are critical in terms of prognosis and treatment, are often blurred at the movies."
Lastly, the idea of secondary trauma to the head could reverse the amnesia is not based on any facts and merely exists for the dramatic effects of the storyline. (Baxendale, 2004, Dec. 14). A more likely scientific-based scenario would be that the second blow to the head with additional loss of consciousness would cause further damage to the brain (Traumatic Brain Injury, 2018, Sept 7).
Cheyenne Post
The movie that I have chosen for this week's discussion is one of my favorite childhood movies Anastasia. Anastasia does not remember her past or where she comes from. She does recall a song that her grandmother used to sing to her. The Romanovs which is Anastasia family was attacked by a man named Rasputin who started the Russian Revolution. Anastasia, her grand-mother, and a boy named Dmitri escapes the palace but as they were running for the train that her grandmother escaped on Anastasia falls and suffers from amnesia. At around 20 Anastasia wants to go to Paris because of a music box that she has always had with her and needs a Visa to travel. She makes it to Paris and reunites with her grandmother and does get her memory back. I believe that she suffered from retrograde amnesia from when she fell and hit her head on the platform.
PART 2
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