Selective Memories!

"A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory”

    I promised last week that we would talk about incest, and I always keep to my word, so I'll make this quick. First of all I would just like to say that  Jocasta was a terrible mother. Pinning your son's feet together and instructing a servant to throw him on a mountain doesn't exactly qualify you for the 'mother of the year' award. Then, to top it off, she marries said son and has children with him! There's no way in heaven or in hell that Jocasta was unaware of Oedipus' identity, but I digress. The real purpose of this blog is not to bash Jocasta's parenting skills, or lack thereof. I want to discuss a concept that can partially explain Oedipus' bizarre memory problems.

I'm sure that we have all done something in our lives that we regret.  Running over a puppy, stealing from a sibling, saying a dirty word or even marrying your mother would be a perfect example of a huge regret. Some things we regret so much that we try to push them out of our mind completely. This is known as 'selective memory'. If an event or memory in your past contradicts the way you portray yourself, you subconsciously remove that event or memory from your mind, especially if it was of your own doing. Selective memory can put us in the mindset of, "If I don't remember it, it didn't happen," which is completely false. We all know that our past comes back to haunt us, and this is incredibly apparent in Oedipus' life. Even if you don't remember doing something wrong there will be someone, somewhere, who will remember.  In this case, the Messenger, the Shepherd and Tiresias all remembered the wrong committed by Jocasta, and the latter two remembered the wrong committed by Oedipus. There is no running from the past, no matter what our brains think.

So, what did we learn today? Jocasta fails at motherhood? Never marry your mother? The past still happened whether you remember it or not? All great answers. I hope this blog isn't a tragic event that you use your selective memory to get rid of. That would just be mean.

Until next week,
Benjamin

P.S. I commented on Lucy's Blog "Mamma Mia!!".