50 First Dates Psychology
In the movie 50 First Dates, Lucy Whitmore, portrayed by Drew Barrymore, is an art teacher that suffers from anterograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create memories after the event that caused amnesia has occurred. Because of this, Lucy only remembers things that occurred prior to her misfortunate car accident. For example, her father and brother go out of their way to reassure Lucy that the day is October 13, 2002, so that she does not suffer from the shocking truth of her condition. Therefore, Lucy goes through life thinking that everyday is October 13th of 2002, until she meets Henry Roth, played by Adam Sandler. Altogether, Henry falls in love with Lucy and lives his life explaining to her every morning about the car crash and her present life with him and their son.
As described in our psychology book, amnesia is the loss of memory. However, in Lucy's case she simply has the loss of memory AFTER her accident, which is the meaning of anterograde amnesia. I believe that the movie did a fine job of portraying the life …show more content…
First, Barrymore’s character has a brother and a father who look after her every day and spend their lives helping her live the delusion that time has stopped. They go through elaborate schemes to “trick” her into avoiding the reality of her condition. Most amnesia patients don’t have this luxury, or family members who can stop their own lives to devote all of their time exclusively to the patient.
Second, Barrymore’s character supposedly has a form of amnesia called “Goldfield’s Syndrome.” This is totally made up by, apparently, the film’s writers and/or director. There’s no such thing as Goldfield’s Syndrome. The fake term annoys me, as there really is a form of amnesia that exactly matches Barrymore’s character. So why didn’t they just call her condition what it’s really called, which would be “anterograde
As described in our psychology book, amnesia is the loss of memory. However, in Lucy's case she simply has the loss of memory AFTER her accident, which is the meaning of anterograde amnesia. I believe that the movie did a fine job of portraying the life …show more content…
First, Barrymore’s character has a brother and a father who look after her every day and spend their lives helping her live the delusion that time has stopped. They go through elaborate schemes to “trick” her into avoiding the reality of her condition. Most amnesia patients don’t have this luxury, or family members who can stop their own lives to devote all of their time exclusively to the patient.
Second, Barrymore’s character supposedly has a form of amnesia called “Goldfield’s Syndrome.” This is totally made up by, apparently, the film’s writers and/or director. There’s no such thing as Goldfield’s Syndrome. The fake term annoys me, as there really is a form of amnesia that exactly matches Barrymore’s character. So why didn’t they just call her condition what it’s really called, which would be “anterograde