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Does a version of this but for embarrassing moments have a name? I just spoke about this yesterday with my shrink.
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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No one in here is asking the real question: how do we extend this power to future events as well?
Sounds like a fucking nightmare
There was a House (I think) episode with this and the character was fighting with her sister bc of some old fight and the sister wanted to make up but she couldn't since the fight was still as fresh in her mind as if it'd literally just happened.
It is. Actor Marilu Henner has this condition.
https://thecore.uchicago.edu/Summer2013/features/permanent-record.shtml
It also sounds like it's going to get tragic with age. The brain is finite in its capabilities, and memory pruning is something that happens automatically, she won't get to choose what she forgets...
She won't have unlimited storage. If she has'ish, other functions will degrade. Finite is as finite does.
Yeah that's where my head went too. I've dealt with a pretty middle-of-the-road amount of hardship... wasn't born with a silver spoon up my ass or anything, but no Hollywood-esque trauma arch either. Still, looking back over even just the past decade, there's a lot more bad than good popping into my brain.
And the cool part? I already can't recall details from a lot of that shit. Just fuzzy concepts that my brain has filed into the fuck-it box and now I don't have to worry about them cuz I'm literally incapable! Woohoo!
Being fully conscious of all that, all the time... that would absolutely destroy my mental health. Fuck that!
Yeah. Remembering when a loved one died as vividly as if it happened yesterday.... For decades. No thank you.
I doubt the condition means that every bad moment is there to hunt you eternally. I mean, I have some traumatic memories but I don't think about them 24/7.
I wonder whether she really remembers every minute detail of every moment of her life, or just has the ability to imagine plausible details and an inability to know what she doesn’t remember, instead her imagination seamlessly filling in the details?
People with this condition remember every detail. Phone number in a piece of paper 20 years ago.
I think its quite insane and I wonder what exactly is preventing everyone else from this. If I had a perfect memory, I would love to learn so many things.
Great question. idk about Sharrock but:
Individuals with hyperthymesia can recall extensive details of their own lives, along with public events that hold personal significance.[7] They often describe their memories as uncontrollable associations: when presented with a date, they immediately "see" a vivid depiction of that day without conscious effort.[8] These memories are strikingly detailed but not literal recordings of experience. In the case of Jill Price, anonymised as "AJ" in the 2006 study by Parker, Cahill and McGaugh,[1] her recollections resembled a movie running in her mind, yet she could not remember incidental details such as what her interviewers were wearing hours earlier.
That description of being shown the event seems to me like not a memory but more like being shown what happened.
Of course we will interpret that as a memory but it may not be. It could be a literal connection to what happened at that time. We only think it's a memory because that's the closest thing we know.
Just thoughts about it.
I was thinking it's kind of like an AI "hallucination". It's a plausible (but not necessarily accurate) representation of what happened. I wonder in what ways those memories change over time.
Shit think I have this! I too can do that, and my earliest memory is from when I was 6 months old. Yes I can pull them up with great details. But to ask the same questions how can I know if it totally real or my imagination filling in the details? Guess we can't know but I can pull up great details of all of my childhood. The bad and the good so really sucks remembering everything with that much detail.
You should contact some of those researchers. There's only a couple hundred people with this characteristic, they might have a survey or interview for you. It's a pretty interesting cognitive ability to study, it'll probably lead to some insights into human cognition in general.
Hmm interesting maybe I look into it. Thank you.
It should be easy enough to verify using books.
This was a condition in a novel I read and it was described as a curse. The book was A Short Stay in Hell and the protagonist could remember every detail of his life and every day in the “hell” he was sent to. He would meet someone knew and within a few centuries they’d have every variation of conversation they could by remembering everything so they’d grow bored of each other and look for someone new.
Its also the condition the protagonist Severian has in the Book of the New Sun series.
I absolutely love that short novel. I read it recently. The idea of what Hell was in this case was so intriguing. This was especially unique in that the inhabitants were given explicit detail of how they could escape Hell.
The 12 day bit appears to be highly contested given humans aren't generally able to form memories for some time after birth.
Either way, seems useful, curious, and painful.
Average human mind. But hers isn't the norm.
I have aphantasia and it still boggles my mind that people see pictures in their head, or can even replay events visually.
Because of my aphantasia I believe it gives me SDAM, Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory
In a way I have the opposite of her. The only way I'd remember what I did on July 19th 2002 was if I memorized it as a fact. Then I could just repeat to you that fact.
I would assume that she has a very visual memory and when she makes a connection her brain shows her the pictures and she can tell you what it shows her.
Painful for sure. I would like to remember more of my life, but I am almost immune to PTSD. Not because I do not remember something but because the way I recall it in my memory is not visually vivid.
Like I would just remember my war experience as details. I'd currently miss my friend if he died beside me in battle. But I'm never going to ever relive or see it in my memory. I might drive myself crazy going over the scenarios and thinking about things I could have done differently. But I couldn't imagine eating a bowl of cereal and your mind randomly goes "Here watch your buddy die again"
There's a lady in Japan with a 7 second memory.
My life is a living hell just being able to remember the few shitty fragments of my past that I wish I could forget