Why do we forget? Are memories just stories we tell ourselves? What happens when our identity depends on our capacity to remember?

Memory provides limitless material for philosophy and fiction and continues to be an object of scientific investigation. But what role does this “diary that we all carry with us” – as Oscar Wilde called memory – play in our lives?

Locke’s notion that memories create a continuity of self that forms our identity is now commonplace. But what if the brain undergoes trauma, damaging its capacity to remember? And what of talk therapies like psychoanalysis, founded on our understanding of memory? Might they risk reactivating rather than transcending trauma?