Erasing traumatic memories: when context and social interests can outweigh personal autonomy
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RESEARCH
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Erasing traumatic memories: when context and social interests can outweigh personal autonomy Andrea Lavazza
Abstract Neuroscientific research on the removal of unpleasant and traumatic memories is still at a very early stage, but is making rapid progress and has stirred a significant philosophical and neuroethical debate. Even if memory is considered to be a fundamental element of personal identity, in the context of memory-erasing the autonomy of decision-making seems prevailing. However, there seem to be situations where the overall context in which people might choose to intervene on their memories would lead to view those actions as counterproductive. In this article, I outline situations where the so-called composition effects can produce negative results for everyone involved, even if the individual decisions are not as such negative. In such situations medical treatments that usually everyone should be free to take, following the principle of autonomy, can make it so that the personal autonomy of the individuals in the group considered is damaged or even destroyed. In these specific cases, in which what is called the “conformity to context” prevails, the moral admissibility of procedures of memory-erasing is called into question and the principle of personal autonomy turns out to be subordinate to social interests benefitting every member of the group. Keywords: Memory-erasing, Neuroethics, Autonomy, Social interest, Neuroscience
Introduction Neuroscientific research on the removal of unpleasant and traumatic memories is at a very early stage, although in recent years there has been significant progress in the understanding of the mechanisms of memory and its possible alterations [1]. The main purpose of those practices is to give relief to those who have experienced or witnessed negative events (accidents, assaults, natural disasters, terrorist attacks) which caused serious psychological consequences and, in severe cases, even led to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this sense, unpleasant memories should be distinguished from traumatic memories. Unpleasant memories are those we’d rather not have, as they can jeopardize our serenity, but typically do not lead to any known pathologies. Traumatic memories, on the contrary, are memories that often lead to PTSD and other psychiatric disorders, memories whose negative emotional charge prevents one from leading a fully “normal” life. In addition to forms of psychotherapy that use the mechanisms of memory extinction in the reconsolidation window [2], the drug currently most tested on Correspondence: [email protected] Centro universitario Internazionale, Via Garbasso 42, Arezzo 52100, Italy
humans is propranolol. It is a beta-blocker molecule that has the effect of mitigating the emotional burden of memories, if taken a few hours after the negative event. The semantic memory of the fact is not affected, while the physiological arousal associated with emotions is greatly reduced. The effectiveness of propranolol, however, has not
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