blog 24 quote

Memories define who we are as people. We all have a collection of memories that have been built up in our minds over numerous years. Within these collections of memories, there are both good ones and unfortunately some bad memories. Though at times we might want to try and forget these less desirable memories, they are still important to us. Renee Mirkes, who is a director of the ethics division for the Pope Paul VI Institute sums up this idea when he said, “To some extent, these unchosen memories constrain us; though we may regret the shadows they cast over our pursuit of happiness, we cannot simply escape them while remaining who we really are” (Mirkes, 6). These bad memories are needed so they can be learned from. We take what is learned and try and make sure it doesn’t happen again, or at least know what we need to avoid. They make us who we are today.  This idea connects to patients with post traumatic stress disorder, whose bad memories are controlling their lives. There numerous ways of dealing with this disorder to try and lessen the effect of the memory, such as therapy. But a newer, controversial way is to take a certain drug that tries to block out the memory. This drug has many ethical issues surrounding it. These bad memories are still important to the person.  By going through therapy instead, the patient still has the memory but they are able to deal with it and move on.  By doing this, they are maintaining who they really are.