# Eidetic Memory?



## Este (Mar 8, 2015)

I originally posted a similar thread on Writing Discussion, but Research is probably the most appropriate place to put it.

For a while now, I've been thinking of an idea for a thriller about a female FBI agent who has an eidetic memory. Her gift allows her to solve crimes involving serial killers and such, but at the same time it hinders her because she remembers so much stuff and has to decode whether it is important to the case or not. Also, she sees a lot of ugly stuff and it's obviously hard to forget it. I've been doing some research on eidetic memories and it seems to be a widely debated topic, especially whether or not people have photographic memories or are just good at remembering certain things. Basically, the subplot is her trying to focus on the benefits of her gift rather than the disadvantages, and what conflict might arise from it.

Could anyone tell me if my idea makes sense and what I could do to flesh it out a bit?


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## Bloggsworth (Mar 8, 2015)

There was a television series last year, with Poppy Montgomery as the protagonist - Cancelled after one series! Marielou Henner (Taxi) was the consultant, she having an eidetic memory.


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## Este (Mar 25, 2015)

I know the show you're talking about. It's called Unforgettable, and I don't think it was cancelled. It was taken up by another channel.


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## RhythmOvPain (Mar 25, 2015)

As long as the idea hasn't been explicitly used under the exact same pretense as your story's, and you're confident you can produce a great plot, then go for it.


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## BurntMason84 (Mar 27, 2015)

Just tossing about ideas for what your asking, but maybe she has trouble focusing, even though having an eidetic memory.  Say, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), or migraines occur as she's recalling things, or maybe slightly schizophrenic and can't discern between her vibrant memories and reality.  Some research says that those with EM can also recall much of their life from a young age with vivid detail, so perhaps there is something haunting her from long ago that she cannot literally forget, despite wanting to.

Like the others said, this has become pretty popular in stories/television with investigators having eidetic memory (despite it being so rare), but I like the focus given to the actual portion that defines her, and how she struggles with it on a constant basis of whether it truly is a gift or really a curse.


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## Este (Apr 2, 2015)

How could I introduce her, and incorporate her eidetic memory into the introduction?


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## JustRob (Apr 2, 2015)

Este said:


> How could I introduce her, and incorporate her eidetic memory into the introduction?



How about having her introduced to someone and her remarking on seeing them previously in great detail and possibly embarrassingly too much detail.

I have a woman with an eidetic memory in my story but she is a minor character and her memories only persist for a short period, the classic "photographic memory". On the other hand I also have people with another memory problem, one of being unable to forget experiences for very long periods, so they go out of their ways to avoid the experiences. People with normal memories don't appreciate their sensitivity and just assume that they'll "get over" a bad experience as they would themselves. Memory is an interesting subject to bring into a story and I've worked it from several angles with different characters all in the same story. My knowledge of eidetics is quite superficial though as that isn't relevant to my main characters. I also have a converse character, a man whose efforts to forget bad experiences in his past have left him generally forgetful of things that he actually wants to remember. I've no idea whether any of my characters are plausible but taken as a group they provide scope for some odd situations. Writing about just one character with unusual memory abilities is quite a different proposition though.

One aspect that has occurred to me is that as we get older our memories of our own experiences and second hand ones from other sources get mingled and we can't tell which relate to our own lives. We've noticed this especially in elderly relatives. Equally I've known people who were convinced that experiences that they must have imagined had actually happened. One work colleague discovered that several years of the life that he remembered never actually happened, so he told us. Perhaps your character could have that problem, of sometimes confusing vivid imaginings with real memories and therefore not always being able to trust them entirely. That would add an aspect of fallibility into what might otherwise be a too successful character. Ultimately memories are all the same regardless of their origins.


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## Elvenswordsman (Apr 2, 2015)

Idea seems consistent with "Cannibal" - a tv show based on a genius who has his own serial killer tendencies.


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## R.Myburgh (Apr 13, 2015)

I would agree with Burnt Mason. Thanks to things like the Da Vinci Code and Red Dragon, as well as Cumberpatch's Sherlock, an eidetic memory has become quite a common trope and is sometimes used as a sort of 'get out of jail free card' as to why a character can link seemingly innocuous things that reveal themselves to be important.

Having said that it is easy to overcome this by adding a problem as a direct result of the eidetic memory. The reason Thomas Harris' Will Graham is so striking and memorable is because he has this amazing ability of empathy but he can't really cope with it. On the memory side maybe something more like mild Asperger's or OCD would fit well and give real depth to the character.


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## ChildOfGod (Apr 20, 2015)

nvm


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