(or) Analyzing the Languages of REMEMBERING and FORGETTING
PAIN - the most frequent emotional word used in the memories "The Art of (Not) Forgetting" participants wanted to forget...
Most often such recollections described the death of a close person.
Among other negative emotions people wanted to forget there are "fear", "terror", "rage", "shame", "fear" and "sorrow"
24 times these emotions had to do with the relations between close family members (mother, grandmother, grandfather, etc)
Introspection is one more phenomenon clearly associated with the language of forgetting.
Negative recollections are more often described in the 1st person narrations. "I", "me", and "myself" are used 68 times (VS 49 times - the number of the times such words were used in resourceful memories people wanted to always remember).
One of people's dreams was to take control of their memory - to forget the most painful episodes and to always remember the beautiful... people, experiences, emotions.... Can we ever learn to do it?...
However, researchers say that it is our brain to already control our memory (not vice versa). Around 50% of our recollections change within one year only...
What about the most pleasant memories?
Not so much diverse seems to be the language of resourceful memories.
Unlike that of the recollections the participants wanted to forget, positive emotions were of a vague and rather abstract nature.
FUTURE is what positive memories are directed to.
The participants' recollections often contain such vocabulary items as "wait", "expectations", "hope". The word "moment" is used 22 times (VS 12 in negative ones).
HIPPOCAMPUS (apart from being responsible for long-term memories' procession) is in charge of our orientation in space, so it's not suprising that postive memories are often built "around" certain places.
Not rarely do they have the names of nature-related spots. In "The Art of (Not) Forgetting" we find such words as "sea" or "water", (12), «road» (3), «city» (4), «village» (4), «sky» (4), «lake» (4), «the sun» (4).