Pyschology in 50 First Dates

50 First Dates

In the film 50 First Dates Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a veterinarian lives in the beautiful state of Hawaii and is known for being with many women with no commitment. This is until he goes to a local diner for breakfast one morning and meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore). They have breakfast together and enjoy each other's company and agree for breakfast the next morning. Roth is confused when the following morning Lucy does not recognize him. Roth than discovers Lucy suffers from short term memory loss because of a terrible car accident she was in and has no recollection of any day after October 13, 2002. Henry does not want to give up, so every day he makes Lucy fall back in love with him. He makes her a tape that explains everything she has missed and fills her in what is going on in her life to date. He uses this method for many years and the tape comes to include their marriage and explains that they have a child.

Around the world certain people suffer from anterograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is caused by trauma done to the part of the brain called the hippocampus (like a blow to the head, for example). The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is responsible for storing and retrieving memories. This disorder does not allow new information to be transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory. All things that happened recently or information that should be stored into short-term memory disappear. However, a person with anterograde amnesia can remember data and events which happened before the injury.

Lucy Whitmore suffers from anterograde amnesia. Lucy suffered an unfortunate car accident on October 13, 2002 in which she had damage done to her hippocampus. She had to stay in the hospital for a while. Once she got out of the hospital the doctors and her family realized she thought everyday was October 13, 2002. Her dad and brother did not know how to deal with her condition so they just did all they can to make it seem like it was October 13, 2002 every day. She would go throughout everyday doing the same thing with no idea that it has been over two years. One day she found out that she had been lied to and that she had this condition and had a meltdown. She would go to bed and wake up the very next morning thinking it was again the day of her accident.

Throughout the movie the idea of anterograde amnesia was both accurately and falsely portrayed. How she got her condition by being in a car accident and having her damage to her brain was accurately shown throughout the movie. Some patients have no memory of something they did 10 minutes prior; however in the movie she can remember the entire day, which is possible but is very rare. Lucy has a tape made for her in the movie that's describes to her what she has all missed. She starts by getting very upset every time she watches it but as the movie goes on she "adapts to it." This is impossible because she would have no way of remembering that she had watched it the day before. The movie was a good way to learn some facts of anterograde amnesia but could give you some false facts.

An example of anterograde amnesia comes from a man only known by his initials HM. He initially suffered from intractable epilepsy. He removed parts of his temporal lobe to stop further spreading of epileptic tissue. After he removed part of his hippocampus HM could not learn any new material and store it in his brain. He could recall things he learned from his childhood and adolescences but lacked detail because they were such old memories.

There are many ways to deal with stressful or unwanted situations. Sigmund Freud used a psychodynamic approach called defensive mechanisms. Freud explains there are 7 defensive mechanisms in total including: Repression, Projection, Displacement, Sublimation, Reaction formation, Regression, and Denial. Some are more commonly used than others. Repression can be described as blocking a painful or threatening memory, idea, or emotion. Displacement is taking one's emotions especially anger or frustration out on objects that are not responsible for the emotion. Many of these techniques are used daily to lower anxiety from unwanted situations.

When Lucy watches the tape she immediately uses the defense mechanism called denial. She does not believe that any of the things Henry shows her on the tape and goes in to emotional distress. She wants to see proof that it is no longer October 13, 2002. She does not believe it is true until she sees legitimate proof that it was almost 3 years later than she was made to believe it