Friday, January 8, 2010

Bad Memories

It sounds weird but I have always believed that a fair number of murderers suffer from aspects of post-traumatic stress. I say weird, because of course it is we ourselves who caused the awful event that now haunts us. But then, if you chop your own fingers off, the fact it is self inflicted doesn't reduce the pain and suffering.

There are now drugs that are able to erase painful memories. Should these be available to murderers as well as the families of their victims?

The proposition raises a range of questions, foremost amongst them being, what is the nature and purpose of punishment? Perhaps it is interesting that the first murderer, Cain, was left unmolested by God, possibly because the lifelong weight of his conscience was punishment enough.

Is it intrinsically part of a murderer's punishment that he carry the memory of what he has done? Or is the legal and moral debt to society expunged at the end of the punitive portion (tariff) of the sentence and so memories, as well as "the slate", could be wiped clean?

10 comments:

  1. This is a tough one. I believe heaven and hell are here on this earth, depending on how we live our lives. Would we be playing God if we interfered with the torture of a troubled conscience? Perhaps the knowledge that one can erase painful memories such as this would stop people from hesitating before committing some heinous act? Then again, I have met folk who seem to have no conscience at all, and are capable of gross insensitivity to others, selfishness and cruelty. They need a drug that induces the self torture that comes with guilt. Like I said, it's a toughie.

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  2. The Greeks and Romans called the demons that drove murderers mad in the end Furies. Not to be confused with these which are something quite different.

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  3. I've always suspected that punishment had sod-all to do with restoration and more to do with people getting 'punished' for holding a mirror up to what we really are and a lot of people can't face that so they turn it on the person who forced them to face up to it.

    I think soldiers who have taken a life in the course of their duties probably feel the same sort of mental anguish. I'd be interested to know if a person who is mentally disturbed feels the same way as someone like you who was basically a 'normal' person who had an a solitary violent moment that resulted in a death?

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  4. We are who we are because of our experiences. If we erased the painful memory would we also remove the major motivator for not reoffending? I think that would almost certainly be so, even if only in a small number of cases.

    Ben, I'd be interested to know whether you think your drive to change things comes from a need to atone? If so, would you choose to take that treatment if it meant you lost your drive?

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  5. Wonder if there is a difference? a murder, say, caused by drink driving, or a fight, that went a bit to far, or a pre-meditated murder where you killed a love rival or something? By the way, get sick of dead soilders being referd to as "heros", feel for the family, but that is what they signed up for, to go and kill someone elses family in another country. In a war that has nothing to do with us.

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  6. Everyone should do their punishment for their crime and then move on - God forgave loads of people because that is the right thing to do - that includes forgiving yourself for your 'sins'. I would expect that one always feels 'bad' about a serious crime but it should not cloud the whole of the rest of their life. People change, and most times, for the better.

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  7. Anon, the war has somthing to do with us even if only because we are in it and as tax payers are paying for it.


    And i think it is an intrinsic part of a murderers punishment which perhaps should be left alone, instead of chemical alteration, after all how can they pick a specific memory? If it is an intrinsic part of a murderers punishment then perhaps they should be judged/sentanced differntly thatn those who , for example,shoplifts repeatedly.


    Christian Sam

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  8. Talking about memories has reminded me of a Japanese movie I watched a few months ago and intend to get on DVD, called 'After Life'(Aka: Wandafuru Raifu). The premise of the movie is that people go to a place when they die where they have to choose one memory to live with for eternity from a library of video's showing their how lives which are kept by their personal angels. It's a wonderful, moving film and I highly recommend it.

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  9. Because I believe in a God who is there, I think that there is real, true guilt that we feel. All of us feel it. Having worked with offenders for 10 years, I know that those who have committed murder feel it, and many express remorse and have a difficult day on the anniversary of their evil deed. Guilt can be dealt with (within the Christian faith anyway which isn't the point of this entry) but if a person was materialistic in his worldview, I am not sure how one would deal with the ever present guilt of a heinous past deed.
    I don't think chemicals are the answer because they would diminish some of our humanity which unfortunately guilt is a part.

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  10. Such a shame
    http://www.theinmatelookup.com

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