Repressed Memory
While all the hype about the new Batman movie was going on a few days ago, I was watching one of the past Batman movies on television. This particular movie was Batman Forever, which was made about ten years ago. Although just about every Batman movie contains an example of repressed memory, I’m going to focus on the one that I observed the other night. Bruce Wayne is the richest man in Gotham City, and he also is the city’s superhero, Batman. Bruce had a traumatic event as a child as he watched his parent’s murder. From then on out, he has dedicated his life to fight crime and make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. The murder of his parents causes Bruce to have horrifying flashbacks throughout daily life, and little things that happen throughout the day trigger these emotions. For example, when Bruce has his girlfriend over for the evening, she accidentally knocks over a vase of flowers and this triggers a traumatic flashback, because when Bruce’s mother was shot, she dropped the flowers that she was holding.
Traumatic memories such as this are very difficult to completely forget. Bruce tries to live a normal everyday life and also fight crime at night, but little things throughout the day make the traumatic visions reoccur. This could make a person mentally unstable, because I know that if I witnessed my parents death at a young enough age to remember, then I am sure I would think about it every day of my remaining life. Bruce Wayne demonstrates a method of dealing with the pain by becoming a notorious superhero.
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