Two people can see the same movie or read the same book and come out with a very different memory of what they saw. Some people have unique perspectives that are surprisingly fresh and unexpected. In this guest article, Daniel Dishman shares a unique perspective on the classical movie “Groundhod Day”.
Who doesn’t like to watch a good movie; to seat down in a cozy living room, turn off the lights and get comfortable on the favorite sofa, while enjoying the art of moving pictures? There are a lot of films beloved by all audiences, and Groundhog Day is definitely one of them. If you haven’t watched these all-time classics yet, you simply must! However, we will recall a plot in some details for the sake of making a point later on.
The movie revolves around the main character, Phil Connors, a journalist who was assigned to make a report about the celebration of the Groundhog Day. It all seems good and well, but he got stuck in the peculiar time loop, and this particular day repeats itself over and over. While it is a solid base for the comedic relief, there is much more to this concept.
Psychology of the Groundhog Day movie
In real life, much like in the film, there are individuals who experience their lives in ways reminiscent of the “Groundhog Day” scenario. This involves memory errors and unique cognitive traits that can lead to amusing and peculiar effects on the brain. There are several specific conditions that can be compared to the repetitive nature seen in the movie. Let’s explore and examine these conditions to understand what science has to say about these fascinating and unusual phenomena.
The curious case of Brad Pitt
While Phil Connors literally memorized every face in the small town he had stuck in a while dealing with the time loop, Brad Pitt deals with quite the opposite problem. He has a condition called prosopagnosia, which can be described as face blindness. A person with this disorder cannot memorize specific facial details of people he or she meet, so most of the time it is hard to recognize people you know. Usually, people affected by prosopagnosia try to develop a system of recognition people by voice, style, the manner of movements. This condition can be acquired through the love damage and trauma or can be congenital, which means that the person is born with it.
Different forms of amnesia
Can you imagine a situation, where you ask a person “can you write me an essay?” and a few minutes, or hours later this person remembers no such a thing? This mild example is one of the numerous types of amnesia. While the true causes of this mystical memory loss disorder vary from being in a coma, having brain trauma, or extreme stress and depression, there are a lot of strange cases connected with this condition. Based on the Groundhog Day facts we can surely say that all dwellers of the main town character stuck in had amnesia with every sunrise. Everyone, except Phil Connors. In real life, the situation is quite the opposite, the cases of collective amnesia are highly unlikely.
- However, there are some famous cases of this strange illness. Agatha Christie, one of the greatest detective writers of the 20th century once has disappeared for 11 days with little recollection of the events that were taking place during that period. While some think it was rather a publicity stunt before the episode took place Christie’s husband asked her for a divorce in favor of his mistress. Huge stress and shock might have caused the memory loss.
- Another peculiar case is not very rare. People who are waking up from coma often experience some memory problems. Alysse Mengason, 45, woke up from 3-weeks coma with no memories of the previous three years of her life. She couldn’t recollect meeting her husband to be with whom she was about to marry a few months later. So you can imagine that it took a lot of work and adjustment getting her self-identity back on the decent level. She said that memories came back gradually with a lot of déjà vu like episodes.
An absolute memory
Some memories just fade away. We cannot remember every single detail of our environment and life. The brain works in the sufficient ways in order to store only the most important information, not all the data we consume. But there are cases in history with people having this absolute type of memory, scientifically called highly superior autobiographical memory, or HSAM. It is an extremely rare condition with not many people diagnosed with it. Jill Price is one of them; she can recall events of the day of any year just as clear as we remember what has happened yesterday. From one side it might seem like a useful skill, but Jill says that her brain is a constant roll of memories which could be overwhelming at times.
What is a groundhog day in our understanding of events of the movie? Well, it has to do with behavior and memory, the patterns of actions and dream-like sequences. While we cannot say that the total reconstruction of the film scenario is possible in real life, we can assure you that partially it is possible. It’s no wonder because films are highly associated with dreams and memories by many philosophers and critics. So if you have an urge to revisit this beautiful film, don’t hesitate and maybe you will notice some other peculiar ways it can disclose interesting facts about our mental life.
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