Sacks’s “The Last Mariner” really intrigued me. We have been debating whether we are our brains or if we are not our brains. In this case, what happens when our brains can no longer remember? Jimmy is a 49 year old man who, in his head, thinks he is 19. He can no longer retain new information. Although he is an educated man and can remember everything he has learned up until that point, not being able to remember anything new leaves him stuck in the past. So, who is Jimmy? Is he simply someone trapped in time? Our brains are very powerful, but, are we our brains? Jimmy really cannot function in todays world because he is not living in todays world. So, what do we make of his life? Despite his brain not working properly, Jimmy is still Jimmy. He keeps his own identity, but, it is the identity of a 19 year old version. If we think about ourselves, do we think of ourselves as who we were at age 19? How about at age 12? And now? Are we no longer those people? If so, does Jimmy have an identity?
These are questions and ideas that are very hard to understand and wrap our heads around. It is a scary thing to wake up and think you are a 19 year old kid just out of high school and look in the mirror and see yourself as an older man. In a way, Jimmy has no self identity. He cannot see himself as the man he is today. The identity which his brain remembers is that of a person who is in the past. He has no present of future identity. In this case, is Jimmy his brain? His brain is telling him who he is, but, he is not that person. So can we make the argument yet again that we are not our brains? If your brain says one thing, and your body says another, who is correct?
When I read this story, it kind of reminded me of one of my customers, who will call Bob, from the bakery. Bob is about 60 years old, married, and had children and grandchildren. You could tell by looking at him but he had this disorder that caused him to think he was a 20. He would see himself as a 20 year in a mirror and what not but it didn’t happen all the time. Of course, it is very different from Jimmie since Bob isn’t always 20.
What I found most interesting about your post was when you said “In a way, Jimmy has no self-identity. He cannot see himself as the man he is today. The identity which his brain remembers is that of a man who is in the past.” One of the subtle hints that your post drops is that time affects your personality and I agree. However, with Jimmy’s case, I’d have to say this is who he is. He has wants and needs but has a barricade around him due to Korsakoff’s syndrome. I think the question that should be asked here is what makes up personality? How is our personality affected by time and our environment? I feel like certain aspects of ourselves come out during depending on the situation.
There doesn’t seem to be a clear or right answer to some of the questions raised by people such as Jimmie. I love that Grace marked a difference in personality, but I am not too sure this is the correct word for the characteristics we are commenting on. It seems from Sacks’ narrative that Jimmie very much as a personality, that can be read through his affect towards his situation and his response to the other people (like the sister for example). There seems to be an intermixing of what brain, life and personality mean and that they can not necessarily be differentiated completely from one another.
Grace has an excellent comparison to this with “Bob”. I personally was comparing a similar situation as I was reading this, though it’s technically fictional. It was reminding me of Drew Barrymore’s character in the movie “50 First Dates”. Now, her issue is certainly not a disorder, but an disability caused by a car accident. She’s basically living in her own version of “Groundhog Day” where she wakes up every morning thinking it’s still the day of the accident and repeats the same routine without remembering it. She can’t make new memories.
When Sacks explains that Jimmy tells him his age is 19 he hands him a mirror and tells Jimmy to look in it and tell him what he sees. Jimmy does so and freaks out because his reflection is an old man, but he’s under the impression that he’s 19. In the movie “50 First Dates” Drew Barrymore’s character makes a very interesting point when her boyfriend brings up the subject of marriage and kids. She asks what would happen if she wakes up one morning 9 months pregnant with no recolection of how it happened. She would be absolutely terrified.
My point is, we could continue to argue back and forth are we or are we not our brains? In my opinion, the brain is a vital organ part of our bodies and just like the body is capable of failing on us so can our brains.
Jessiee, You asked who is Jimmy. I think Jimmy is indeed stuck in the past. His brain remembers things that happened in the past but not what happened two days ago. Jimmy is remembering stuff that possibly made an impact in his life in some way. For example, I left Guyana when I was only 10 but all I can remember fully well is the description of my house. In a way, it’s almost like a photographic memory. When Jimmy was told that was his reflection of himself in the mirror, he didn’t believe because all he could remember is how he used to look when he was young. Jimmy is a young man stuck in an old man body. His reaction towards himself in the mirror reminds me of someone like a cave man who have seen himself in the mirror for the first time.
Like many of you guys, I was very interested by “The Last Mariner”. Its scary to think of losing all your memories or just not being able to create new ones. I love the question that Jessie posed about WHO Jimmy is. It got me thinking, are we considered different people as the years go by? Will we be considered different tomorrow than we are today? Sometimes we say things like “I’m still the same person” or “I’m not the same person”, but what exactly does that mean? What makes us the same/different? Does time change us? Does age change us? Just some food for thought.