The Butterfly Effect Essay

The movie, The Butterfly Effect, released in 2014, tells the story of Evan Treborn who, after suffering many tragedies as a young boy finds a way to unlock his repressed memories. With the help of journals that he began writing at seven years old, Evan relives the tragic events of his past and attempts to change them for the better. Through trial and error, Evan creates a story for himself and his friends that he believes is the best of all possible options.
The first key point in the story line is when Evan forgets about drawing a serial killer at school. The second key point is when Evan forgets grabbing a knife while his mother is out of the kitchen. The next time he forgets something is when he ends up in his friend Kayleigh’s basement
Dr. Will Meek (2012) argues that forgetting these events can lead to a loss in the potential learning that could be gained from the event. As Spreng (2013) out it, “The function of memory is not only to recall the past, but also to form and update models of our experiences and use these models to navigate the world.” The experiences that one has throughout his or her lifetime play very key roles in who that person is. Repressing one or more of these key memories could easily change that person’s
The film was correct in using hypnosis as a means to unlock repressed memories as that is the technique that was most popular among psychologists at the time (Thompson, 2015). The problem is that Evan has extreme physical responses to the hypnosis. In hypnosis, there is little to no physical response because the body is in deep relaxation (Zarren, 172). The way that Evan physically fights his memories and gets a bloody nose is very unlikely. So the use of hypnosis was correct, but Evan’s reaction was overly