by Ransom Noble

Created on: July 22, 2011

A pill always seems like a magical way to solve problems, but when you take away a memory of something traumatic you're also taking away your reasons for healing from it. The healing from the trauma makes a person stronger and defines character. 

Character isn't just something used in books. It drives a person to make decisions. Every event and encounter teaches something, even if the main idea is to never do it again. In the book

Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey, when the main character discovered she could take away memories to rid the world of some dreadful knowledge, she tested it on the princess with whom she traveled. The princess had one specific terrible memory because of their adventures, yet she chose to give away a different, good memory from much earlier in her life.

The reason to choose to keep the traumatic memories, or any memory, is that every moment builds you into the person you are. If you go out dancing every night or if you choose to stay home and read a book, it defines you. If you suddenly change because of an experience and then take away the memory, you're going to start wondering why you stay in every night when you love to go out or vice versa. 

The lost memory leaves you open to repeat the same mistakes that led to the traumatic experience in the first place. It doesn't matter whether there was blame attached to the incident or not - it may lead you to being in the wrong place at the wrong time again. When a lesson is learned, a person changes his or her behavior, even if only slightly, in order to protect the self from repeating the trauma. 

Repressed memories might seem like the same effect as taking a pill to take away a traumatic memory, but the difference is the person repressing the memory is doing it as a survival mechanism, and there is a high likelihood that person will have to deal with the memory and everything it means in the future. When the trauma resurfaces, the person deals with it again like it is the first time going through the pain. 

Facing memories, whether they are traumatic or depressing or embarrassing, is the only way to learn and grow. Everyone makes mistakes and has different kinds of traumatic events from which to recover.  

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