I came across the notion fairly recently that it is the inability to forget that is as much a problem for trauma sufferers as their inability to recall trauma.
In other words, the ability to selectively forget is a survival trait.
Botany has a segment on cannabis, and the research done to discover the mechanism by which cannabis has its effects on the human brain.
It was discovered that there is a receptor site in the brain that has an exact match to the active compound in cannabis, something called THC (going to 'selectively forget' what that stands for :-).
The researchers were skeptical that the brain would have adapated a universal receptor (meaning, pan-cultural) for THC.
So they looked for the chemical in the brain that matched the receptor.
The guy who 'found' it called it 'anandamide', so christened in honor of the pranic state of bliss referred to as 'ananda'.
(ok, it stands for, 'tetrahydrocannabinol' :-)
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Quoting Pollan (bold mine):
"Forgetting well is almost as important as remembering well,"
"Forgetting is about editing. It's about taking the flood, the ocean, of sense information coming at you, and
forgetting everything but what's important."
***
So PTSD is the inability to selectively edit one's memories to suit the needs of the moment.
Whether this is cause? or effect? Have to read some more to see what speculations are being made.
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