Learning To Forget

In the 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Jim Carrey has his memory erased to forget a painful relationship. Scientists are a long way off performing this type of procedure in people, but studies suggest that it is, indeed, possible. Credit: Focus Features

From Cosmos:

Painful memories that cause distress could soon be a thing of the past. Recent studies suggest memories can be manipulated, edited - and even deleted.

JASON NICOLL IS TORMENTED by the past. In 1994, when he was 21 years old, he was deployed with the Australian Defence Force to serve six months in Rwanda. This was at the height of the genocide.

"I saw dead bodies, people who'd stood on land mines, people who'd been shot or hacked up with machetes. Once, I carried a young girl, about eight or nine years old, who'd been shot in the chest.

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