Memory and Identity in Memento

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2019)

In philosophical terms, Memento focuses on the questionable relevance of memory in determining personal identity, and how identity persists over time. The film's protagonist, Leonard, has a short-term memory loss condition due to a violent encounter with a rapist. He is unable to form any new memories, and last thing he does remember is his wife "dying." Many philosophers, such as John Locke, have argued the importance of the persistence of our personality and memory when determining identity. Is the Leonard after the incident a different Leonard than the one before? Does each independent block of remembered time represent a different person? According to the psychological account of personal identity, yes. But this is troubling to many philosophers. Let us look at Leonard's case: Every time he "comes to" he remembers who he is, and everything that happened to him before his wife's apparent murder. However there is an amnesia block similar to Chisholm's account. This block breaks the consistent chain of memory. As far as personality is concerned, Leonard still identifies himself as the same Leonard prior to the incident, albeit a lot angrier and more confused. If we consider an account of memory as a sort of glued-together chain, then we might be able to think of pre-incident Leonard the same as post-incident Leonard. Leonard before the incident (A) is connected to a period of forgotten time (B) who is in turn linked to present Leonard who is consciously processing his surrounding environment (C). Perhaps we can consider A, B and C the same person merely by their bonding, even though C cannot remember B (reminiscent of the General unable to remember stealing apples as a boy). However there is a glaring issue effecting the authenticity of Leonard's memories. Teddy reveals to us at the end of the film the possibility of Leonard manipulating his memories to serve his desires. If this is possible, then theoretically Leonard could, given his condition, manipulate himself to believe almost anything, since he knows very little to begin with. Does this imply that Leonard could willingly alter his identity? It sounds implausible, but given the fundamentals of the memory theory, it is not ruled out. Perhaps Leonard, as a result of his condition, is the ultimate master of his identity: a role that at times gives him great power and freedom, and other times feeds into his madness.