Except for my post on , readers of this blog seem to prefer when I write about older movies, like or. So, what about this movie is valid, and what is total Hollywood hogwash? In terms of psychology, some parts of the film are simply not accurate portrayals of amnesia. These points aside, however, the movie did actually contain quite a bit of validity on other points, relevant to psychology. Another reality portrayed in the film is that most people who have severe amnesia are forced to live in a hospital setting. There, the patients can be closely monitored and protected. You can imagine how stressful it would be to have a condition such as anterograde amnesia, and how confusing the world might become. Any new invention would scare you, as would your own reflection in the mirror as time continued to pass. This is also accurate. The type and extent of brain damage causing anterograde amnesia can vary, which leads to large discrepancies between individuals for how long memories can stick before fading away. If it seems like 10 seconds is ludicrous, I assure the readers that this point is, unfortunately, very real. Perhaps one of the most famous amnesia patients is an English man named Clive Wearing, who could essentially only remember things for 7 seconds. However, the actual condition is extremely hard on the patient and his or her entire family. They came to the realization that visits were stressful and unhappy memories for them, but had no long-term effect on their father at all. So why keep going through that pain, over and over? But What About that Hollywood Film Ending? This seems like a really fake, cheesy end to the movie. While it is, admittedly, super cheesy, there is actual validity to this ending. However, we know that amnesia patients can still be affected by these memories, in surprising and interesting ways. However, he did continue to recognize his wife, in spite of her twenty or thirty years. And he never showed surprise that she had aged when she visited. He never showed surprise when he looked in the mirror and saw that he had become an old man. Note, when his condition was new this was not the case. Wearing was continually angry, scared, and forlorn. When asked about the journal, he denied that it existed. However, he knew where it was kept. If he had anterograde amnesia, how the heck did he even know that he had it?? And how could he remember what it was like to live with the condition? Yet, in spite of the irony of his case, Wearing could describe his life. It was depressing, but it was real. Surprisingly, the answer appears to be yes. But the portrayal of anterograde amnesia is actually not horribly wrong. Copyright Wind Goodfriend, Ph. Haven't seen 50 First Dates, but its treatment of amnesia sounds like a documentary study compared to The Majestic. Jim Carrey shows no signs of dementia well, in this movie at least , or short-term memory loss. He has no problem playing the old piano tunes he loved. He's forgotten his identity and absolutely nothing else. Of course this movie also wants me to believe that if you drive a car off a pier into the ocean, the car will float with the current for 100 miles and eventually wash up on the beach. The thing that bothers me about your review is that you say the movie is horrible, but it seems to do more things right however unfeasible the application may seem than wrong. My sister had a traumatic brain injury in 1998. I remember the officers coming to the door, the look in their eyes told my father and I that they did not think my sister was going to survive the accident. I was only 16 at the time, but I would have done anything to make my sister feel better. If that meant that my father and I would have to trick her to replay a day over and over again, we would have. It may have been unlikely that my father and I would have been able to do that, but perhaps some people that can afford to live on Hawaii might have that luxury. After you pointed those issues out you went on to address many other issues that turned out to be accurate. Sometimes sad but also accurate. That would show that you aren't the only one that feels that the brother and father can not spend their lives doing what they are doing, but it is going to be hard for her family members to let her go. Sorry that you got hung up on the name of the disease, but based on your article I would say that the movie is at least worth seeing for its accuracies. The movie is cheesy, but it has a soft, warm, and loving feel to it. If that is its biggest flaw, I'd say it is an okay movie. I agree with both of you, I believe. James - this was the first movie I saw with my wife, so it has some sentimental value to me, as well. I'm an intelligent person by conventional testing methods, even genius by IQ score, and I know other intelligent people that have similar a similar sense of humor. I believe it is probably as much the annoying inaccuracies from her specialty that bother the doc as it is the differences in sense of humor. The tennis was so terribly faked that it made me ill as a good tennis player. The condition has come to be known as 'Goldfield syndrome' Henry: Who's Goldfield? Doctor: A brilliant Lithuanian psychiatrist, he himself suffered temporal lobe damage. It took home four years to publish his findings because he had to keep starting over from scratch. Lucy: laughs Doctor: Obviously your sense of humour is still intact. I think it's extremely admirable that you are so caring for your sister! I would like to think that I would do the same for any of my brothers, but I haven't been put in that situation, so I don't know. My personal opinion of the movie is more about how I found the dialogue pretty cheesy and that I just don't like Adam Sandler I find him annoying. So yes, I don't like this movie, but it's for more personal reasons that academic ones. Therefore, people with different personal taste than mine are certainly more likely to enjoy it. I hope that helps -- thanks again for reading! He knew what was going on, was constantly writing everything down, but said he couldn't remember anything from the previous day. After reading your article, I don't know how that works, because he obviously knew what has happened to him. Are there forms of this memory loss that don't affect every new memory that you make? I would definitely have to know more about this case to give you an accurate answer. It sounds very confusing. How did this person know what classes to attend? While some people with anterograde amnesia can, in fact, realize their problem and have some level of awareness for a good example, look up Clive Wearing on YouTube or Google , his case honestly sounds more like a creative excuse to not do well in classes. Of course, as I said before, I can't make any kind of actual assessment without knowing more. I did not think that it was possible the first time I watched it. But I have been learning more about anterograde amnesia recently and understand it better now. I started reading about it because of my own memory problems. Though I don't have amnesia, I do tend to lose things when I go to sleep. I have to write myself reminder notes and leave them where I am sure I will see them, sometimes even writing them on my arm. I am often confused when I wake up in the morning, having to stop and think about why I set my alarm, what day it is, if I have to go to work etc. And if someone asks me to do something the next day I have to be sure to write it down or I will not remember that they asked me to do something. But that is mostly due to an attention deficit. I always tell people to make sure that they have my attention before they tell me things but it is hard for them to know since I will respond to everything they say as if I actually am listening then later have no memory of the conversation. I like this movie and think it's one of Adam Sandler's best. It's cheesy,but it's supposed to be. I understand that he can be hard to take and there are parts of the movie that make me cringe. But like all of his movies there is an underlying warmth and sweetness that makes the crude and juvenile humour bearable. And as for the unrealistic efforts of the father and brother, it is possible, if not plausible, and it is necessary to make the plot work. A movie about a girl with amnesia who lives in a hospital would not be very interesting and would severely limit the plot development. I agree -- this is one of Adam Sandler's best movies, and he does have an underlying sweetness that makes him appealing. And of course, the movie could have have been a very successful romantic comedy without some unrealistic aspects at least, not when the topic was anterograde amnesia. Your personal experiences are very interesting! Note - I'm not suggesting that for you! But you might want to check out the film if you haven't already seen it. Chill out, if people wanted to learn about amnesia they probably wouldn't be going to a goofy Adam Sandler movie. You don't like it? DON'T FUCKING WATCH IT THEN. It's really not rocket science. Again, if someone wanted to learn about brain disorders they'd watch a documentary on brain disorders. This is not that!!!!! So let people that enjoy the movie enjoy it for what it is - an unthinking, uncaring, care-free laugh a minute movie that doesn't try or need to be accurate about a brain disorder. You don't like it? So I sorta have to point out when the movie does or doesn't. If you don't care, why even read the blog? Your post seems ironically critical. I just read your post and I wanted to say thank you. It was very helpful for me, unlike Gordon, when I saw this movie like 10 years ago I searched if this anterograde amnesia is real but as you said it, It wasn't a real name so I couldn't find anything. I hope you see it too cause I loved it like Memento. Wish You the BEST where ever you are. So after watching 50 First Dates for perhaps the 50th time, my wife and I wondered if Goldfield's Syndrome was a real thing. Samantha - good luck getting through grad school! On the other hand, it is a shame that you take a romantic comedy so seriously. First, it is funny, tender and entertaining, which is really the goal. Second, while laughing at some of the consequences of brain trauma in a way, it also offers to the public some insights in a comical fashion thereby increasing the empathy to those who might have that trauma or to deal with it. So lighten up and appreciate it for the successes and the fact that it is hard not to be touched when Lucy finds she is a mother again every day. I kind of have a question for you. I am currently writing a novel about a men who happens to have Anterograde Amnesia, and the plot is kind of similar to this movie, except the part of the romance. And I wanted to know why would you say that it is 'impossible' for a family to do what Lucy's father and brother did for her. Let's just pretend the family is disgustingly whealty and the patient has shown sings of improvement somehow. Like you said with Mr. Wearing, it's like he got used to this whole lifestyle. I just want to know why 'it's not okay' to do that. And, even if it's the stupidest question you got this month, I need to have an answer before I explode. S: I just have to say I loved the movie, when I first watched it I was 12 and it was one of the first movies to ever get to my soft side. And I don't know why everybody says Adam Sandler sucks, but I love him. Now you know what kind of sick person I am. You've already raised the biggest issue, which is simply money and pragmatics of the situation. People age, people get hair cuts, people buy new clothes, things around the house change, the weather changes, etc. Even if a family could pull this off in some kind of tropical compound where everything is carefully controlled, it could only last a few years at most, because eventually everyone involved would age to the point of confusion. Still - it should make for a good novel! Good luck with your writing. My husband wanted to know if this condition was real -- I had read of real-life cases, and to prove that it was real, I ended up here. It's great to have this blog to provide the actual clinical name of the condition and how it works. Thanks for explaining how real but rare, I hope! The story was actually very sweet. However, one thing at the end that disturbed me very much was the fact that she had a daughter. I can accept how she is able to remind herself every morning that she has a husband along with the rest of her story since the accident. But I cannot imagine the horror of waking up pregnant out of nowhere day after day. And what about the birth? I would hope they just put her under and performed a C-section when it was time instead of letting her go through labor suddenly without knowing she was even pregnant. Finally, the poor child herself. While everyone else are adults who can understand the situation and her husband chose to involve himself, how painful and confusing must it be for an innocent little girl to have her own mother not remember her. Having a child is not a decision to be made in a day, yet that would have been the only way for her to do it. I don't think that's fair at all. This part of the story left a bitter taste in my mouth after the end of the movie. Children of people with this condition do typically have a very hard time with it. That said, in those cases the children initially knew a parent without amnesia and had to make a transition. I'm not aware of any true stories of a child born to someone who already had it... Thanks for reading and for posting! Maybe it is due to your dislike of the movie or the way the true illness was turned into a humorous plot. Lucy Drew Barrymore is the one who broke of the relationship because she did not want Henry Adam Sandler to give up his career dreams in order for him to stay and spend all of his time making her fall in love with her every day. She did not want to be a burden to him. She erased him from her memories journal and moved into the institute. Henry did not want this to happen and tried to convince her otherwise. Do try to enjoy the fictional tale and not destroy the fantasy of a movie by interjecting an over-analytical and critical opinion because they decided to suspend reality for the sake of entertainment. Enjoy it for what it is a fictional tale of two people falling in love. Yes I do agree that it isn't Oscar worthy but it is only a movie.
