Memories Make Us Who We Are | Breakthrough

Steve believes our identities are built on memory.

[Music]

When you think about memory, it is the thing that threads and unifies our overall sense of being. So, without it, we become stuck in time, right? And we lose our [Music] identity. But how reliable is memory? Even in a well-functioning brain, we used to think that memories were really stable, that you form one memory and it's not ever changing. It's just stabilized in your brain, and that memory lasts forever.

So, now we know that for all intents and purposes, when you recall a memory, you're constantly updating it with new [Music] information. Every time you revisit a memory, it becomes vulnerable; it can be changed. Say, for instance, two people on a date end up at a bar. Things go well; later, the woman recalls the scene, but each time she remembers it, small details may change over time. The details add [Music] up, and the same thing is happening to her date.

Each time he revisits the memory, it subtly [Music] alters until eventually, he and she have very different memories of what the bar looked like that night, how they were dressed, or even how they behaved. The changes in memory can be especially dramatic if one person's feelings about the other have changed. A good memory can turn bad.