Memento (Movie Relating To Abnormal Psychology)
Extra Credit: Video. Memento (2000)
Many times in Hollywood movies portray psychopathology. The film Memento deals with neuropsychology. The main character (Leonard) has anterograde amnesia, which in the most basic terms, he cannot form new memories. The movie is played in reverse and in a way where the director tries to portray anterograde amnesia to the audience.
First this very confusing movie should be summarized in order to understand his condition. The main character Leonard Shelby is trying to avenge the rape and murder of his wife. He recalls that she was killed by an intruder, the same intruder who gave him a head injury; the injury that left him with anterograde amnesia. We know it is anterograde and not retrograde because he is able to remember everything up until the injury but no longer has short-term memory. He describes this in the movie by saying, "I can't make new memories. Everything fades." Leonard's only reason for living is to find and kill the person responsible for his wife's death and his unfortunate disability. Some things that help him in his quest is taking Polaroid photographs and tattooing important facts onto his body. The story is narrated in reverse chronology, beginning with Leonard shooting a suspected killer, it is followed by scenes that correspond to Leonard's short-term memory. The sequence of events is the most confusing part of the movie. Leonard talks about a man named Sammy who suffered from anterograde amnesia after a car crash. Sammy's diabetic wife thinks the condition is mental and then must be voluntary. She tries to get him to "snap out of it" by testing him in different ways. After giving up and having a husband who cant remember anything, she finally tricks him into administering her insulin shot over and over until she dies. There are other characters in the movie that try to manipulate and use Leonard as an assassin because they know of this condition and goal in life. We realize...
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