'From education and exams, to being convincing and socially impressive, memory is often prized as critical to success. But might forgetting be more important to our sense of self and our ability to make good decisions? We retain a tiny fraction of the sensory data our bodies experience. And some argue what we choose to ignore is more important than what we seek to remember. As Nietzsche argued "it is possible to live with almost no memories, but without forgetting it is impossible to live at all". Real life examples of people who are unable to forget confirm this, but it is also supported by the many who are unable to forget experiences that have lasting and damaging effects on their lives.  

Is forgetting a vital and critical aspect of being who we are? Should we place less emphasis on memory and focus more on what and how to forget?  And should psychotherapy follow Freud and seek to recover memories or is wellbeing more easily found with finding ways to forget?

Pre-Reading: 

1. Freud was wrong, psychoanalysis is a moral pursuit

2. Memory creates reality and the self