Erase
Distraught, Daniel, a 23 year old frantically bursts through the doors of NeuPsych and pleads with the receptionist “I’ve got to have a memory erased!!!”
She peers over the desk bewildered by his urgent affect.
“I want to forget who I am”
The receptionist merely blinks “Pardon?”
“Yes, I want to erase it, my entire memory”
“Sir, that’s not something we can bill insurance for and ethically there are certain constraints...”
“I don’t care, you must have a waiver. Patient first, right?”
She looks at him over the rims of her black glasses, which are too big and overwhelm her small face, and passes him a clipboard. “You can fill out this form, I’ll check if Dr. Yanikian has any cancellations, but there may be a wait.”
What is the nature of your memory?
√Heartbreak
√Pathological mourning
√Substance abuse
√Sexual Abuse
√Military PTSD
√Complex PTSD
√Other
Daniel scrawls his personal information, checked other and sat down. In 15 minutes a short man with a scraggly grey beard and perfectly pressed white labcoat emerged from behind a solid steel door. “Daniel?” he invited me back and we entered a well-decorated office.
“There are several techniques. Experimental interventions with pharmaceutical drugs that inhibit certainreceptors or the synthesis of certain proteins, lowering the levels of stress hormone cortisol, electroconvulsive therapy and deep brain stimulation, behavioral approaches including neurofeedback techniques or subliminal exposure.”
“We’ve used it when terrorists killed 130 people in an attack on the bataclan theater in Paris in November 2015. Of the 320 treated, 293 indicated that the treatment was at least somewhat effective in allowing them to complete their daily activities of life without significant interference from the trauma-based memories. It doesn’t wipe out the memory but merely dulls the pain, think of it as an emotional anesthetic. Bengay for your heart and mind. It will still be sad but you will no longer be in a seemingly endless death grip by the memory.”
Daniel shook his head "I wasn't clear, this isnt to relieve trauma. I need to erase it completely, I cannot know this information that i know. It's a matter of global security."
The dr paused. “Daniel, why do you want to erase your memory entirely?”.
"I can't give you specifics but the information I know could cause the world we know it to cease spinning, in so many words.
The Dr. Looked at him with a surveyal attempting to determine if he was cognitively all there.
"I know it sounds ludicrous but please trust me, this is important," Daniel pleaded.
the doctor redirected his gaze to the empty area of desk just in front of his keyboard.
"Daniel I'm willing to try something unprecedented. An intensive treatment cycle of the memory numbing may lead to memory deletion. There have been some initial clinical trials but the outcomes have not been perfect. It has caused a low incidence of brain damage."
"It doesn't matter. If there is a chance this can erase everything it's worth it. I'd die without treatment if they ever found out what I' ve done."