At RealClearLife they report on a medical condition they characterize as “extremely rare”:
Scientists are finding one woman’s case particularly memorable.
As The Guardian reports, 51-year-old Jill Price was the first person in history to be diagnosed with “superior autobiographical memory,†and is one of just a handful of individuals known in the world who suffer from it. What exactly does that mean? She’s remembered everything—dates, situations, and other parts of life’s minutia—since 1980.
Where she was, who she was with, what was playing on the television — it’s all burned into her memory.
The only surprising thing to me in this is that they’re calling it “extremely rare”. I think it’s just underdiagnosed.
Interestingly, there are no known records of a politician suffering from the condition.
I suspect, however, that most married men can testify to its prevalence.
60 Minutes had a segment a few years ago on this condition, interviewing about 6-7 people, one of whom was the actress Marilu Henner.
Hell, my wife even remembers everything, even stuff that didn’t happen.
Steve
I doubt you’re the only husband who can testify to that.
Heh, well from the wives’ perspective of course the widespread prevalence of male selective amnesia is the problem.
The conservation of memory. It’s the circle of life.
I’m the opposite, I remember very little. I’m on tour in the UK at the moment and being led around by a publicist part of whose job is reminding me of the names of people I’ve met several times before. But I’ve had an exceedingly peripatetic life. Names and faces go into very short-term memory, sometimes lingering there for as long as five minutes.