In The Quarantine 5: Would you delete haunting memories?
May 26, 2021•181 words
Reading time: 1 min
If we could remove memories from our mind, would you or should you remove the saddest memories that repeatedly haunt you?
I thought about this for a while today and could not come to a sound answer. To an extent, I really want to say yes, I would want a particular memory to be deleted as it causes me a lot of recurrent grief and sadness.
However, we also lose the lessons learned as a result of the resolutions or outcomes from the event. Another consideration (not sure whether I agree or not though) is the argument of losing the 'contrast' between happy and sad times.
Could we still feel happiness (or at least relative happiness?) if we deleted all semblance of negative memories? I would like to say yes, although I cannot quantify this or back it up with evidence. Maybe there is sound research done on this as of current time that I am unaware of.
Although, does the contrast argument stand? See:
The Hedonic Treadmill - Why we can never be constantly happier