2014
Memento:
A Hollywood Psychological Profile
Exploring anterograde memory disorder through the eyes of Hollywood on the
basis of the DSM V classification construct.
Stacy Anderson
SLCC Abnormal psychology 2300
7/30/2014
Memento – A Hollywood Psychological Profile
Earlier this year, a co-worker of mine and I were discussing favorite movies. She mentioned that
her favorite of all time was a psychological thriller done by director Christopher Nolan called Memento. I
opened up my notes app on my phone and made note of it adding it to my list of Hollywood
“psychological” case studies that I could watch when reading, studying and writing about drove me
crazy. Consequently, I was thrilled when this particular movie was on the list of those that could be
watched for a mandatory assignment. Talk about the best of both worlds!
Movie title: Memento
Central Characters: Leonard Shelby and his wife, Sammy Jankis and his wife, Teddy, Dodd, Natalie and
Jimmy Grantz
Plot:
Leonard Shelby is a man who is suffering with anterograde memory dysfunction (amnesia) after
being hit by an intruder who has broken into his home and is attempting to rape and murder his
wife. The trauma to the left side of his head has left him with the inability to create new
memories but able to access his long term memory. He sets himself on a quest through notes,
files, tattoos and pictures – various self-created mementos – to hunt down and seek vengeance
towards his wife’s killer. He helps himself remember his condition by referring to a tattoo on his
hand above his thumb which reads “Remember Sammy Jankis”.
Sammy was a man who’d also had anterograde amnesia that Lenny, early in his career,
had investigated for potential insurance fraud as an insurance investigator. His findings had
been that Sammy’s condition was psychological and had subsequently helped the company
deny his claim. Sammy’s wife needed to know if he was truly permanently brain damaged or just
psychologically impaired. She found a way to test him, through his love and adoration for her, by
putting together a false dosing schedule for her insulin shots. If he was psychologically
hampering himself, he’d not give her the shots which he knew would send her into a diabetic
coma and with all probability, kill her.
The twist comes towards the end of the movie as we realize that the John G. (whom he
has determined is Teddy, his cop friend) is in truth the officer who helped Lenny hunt down and
seek vengeance on his wife’s rapist a year prior ending in the killer’s death.
But it doesn’t stick and bring him the peace he lives for so Teddy finds other “John G.s”
to hunt down and seek vengeance on so Lenny can find that happiness time and time again
while Teddy also enjoys the spoils of vigilante justice. One of their victims is Jimmy Grantz, a
drug dealer whose girlfriend later uses Lenny to turn the tables and seek revenge on Teddy for
killing her boyfriend and another drug dealer who intends to harm her.
The real kicker, however, is that Sammy Jankis although a real person, is not the one
whose story Lenny tells. It is Lenny’s story. He is the one who killed his wife through insulin
overdosing. But he has found a way to use his condition to manipulate himself by erasing all
evidence of that fact so he can continue to live for a more noble cause – that of vengeance in
her name - instead of living with the knowledge that he was the instrument in his wife’s suicide
because she couldn’t live with the ache of his impairment.
DSM Diagnosis of Leonard Shelby: 1.) Code - ICD-10-CM [S06.2X9S] diffuse traumatic brain injury with
loss of consciousness of unspecified duration sequela, FO2.80 - Major neurocognitive disorder
due to traumatic brain injury, without behavioral disturbance and anterograde memory
dysfunction.
2.) Code - 309.81 Post traumatic stress disorder with dissociative symptoms of depersonalization
and derealization.
3.) Code - 309.89, Other specified trauma and stressor related disorder – persistent complex
bereavement disorder.
DSM Diagnosis of Shelby’s Wife: Code - 296.23 Major depressive disorder, severe with melancholic
features.
Justification for Diagnosis: It is assumed from the beginning of the movie that Lenny has a “condition”
since he tells this to everyone he talks to. But the real puzzle is if his injury is psychological,
biological, chemical or in fact even real. We begin to see flashbacks of the scene with his wife
and the ensuing fight and blow to the head which leaves him bleeding from the left side of his
cranium where his temporal cortex and hippocampus can easily be injured. We can then assume
his condition may be due to an injury and exacerbated by the shock of the situation and assess
that his anterograde amnesia may in fact be real.
Scenes are shown of him previously lying on the bathroom floor unconscious but his
actions at the current time are quite normal other than he cannot make new memories and has
found a way to compensate for his lack of short term memory (thus the movie’s name –
Memento) which prohibits him from obtaining any further episodic and semantic explicit
memories while his implicit memory remains largely intact.
The criteria for a major neurocognitive disorder due to traumatic brain injury are
evidence of a brain injury, loss of consciousness, posttraumatic amnesia, disorientation and
confusion and neurological signs which present immediately after the injury or recovery of
consciousness and persist throughout the recovery period. Since he communicates, acts
appropriately and does not display outbursts that are extraordinary based on societal norms, I
chose to categorize his disorder without behavior disturbance.
As we delve further into the plot, we come to find out that he manipulates his unique
situation to forget his guilt and grief for the part he played in his wife’s death thus maintaining a
reason to live. He continues to relive the attack though his implicit memories which he’s
recreated through conditioning and his “mementos” and this is ultimately the impetus that
drives him and gives him a reason to live literally moment by moment. His amnesia allows him
the unique ability to easily disassociate and become depersonalized and step out of his reality.
And although his memory is truncated, this led me to a diagnosis of PTSD with dissociative
tendencies including depersonalization and derealization and persistent complex bereavement
disorder. His inability to handle the traumatic scenario further complicated by his love for his
wife and her ensuing death initially lured me to explore these options.
PTSD is defined by exposure to a traumatic event by directly experiencing it and/or
witnessing it, learning that it happened to a loved one and experiencing repeated exposure to
the adverse details of the events and presents with symptoms of recurrent and involuntary
distressing memories and/or dreams, dissociative reactions (flashbacks) where they relive the
event, intense or prolonged psychological distress or reactions at exposure to internal or
external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the event, avoidance or efforts to avoid
external reminders, negative alterations in cognitions and mood associated with the event like
the inability to remember important aspects of the event, persistent and distorted negative
beliefs or cognitions about the cause or consequences marked alterations in arousal and
reactivity like reckless or self-destructive behaviors and hypervigilance and the disturbance
further causes impairment and is not attributable to a substance or other medical condition.
In conjunction with the above symptoms, Lenny also found ways to detach himself of his
mental processes and altered the reality of his circumstances to protect his fragile mind.
He did all of this because he simply could not handle the resultant outcome of his impairment
on his wife that he loved more than life itself. An altered reality was better than the truth and
facing his grief. As he himself said at the end, “I’d rather be known as a bad guy than a killer.”
His implicit memory dictated his heart and reactions on a subconscious level knowing his explicit
memories from that time forward would protect him from the truth and agony of loss.
It was pretty easy to assess his wife with a major depressive disorder with melancholic
tendencies since she fit the criteria to a “T” although we later find out that she was
characterized in Lenny’s mind by Sammy’s wife. She had a depressed mood most of the day,
every day and had a loss of interest and pleasure in almost all activities as she watched her
husband and looked for any sign of new recognition in his eyes. There was a markedly
diminished interest in life’s pleasures and displayed psychomotor retardation, feelings of
worthlessness, guilt and hopelessness and had thoughts of death with a plan that worked. She
definitely had a lack of reactivity as she knew the insulin shots would probably kill her and
displayed profound despondency and despair prior to a look of amused relief as he gave her
shot after shot.
Is it Real?: I looked up anterograde amnesia. It is a real condition and is actually the most common type
of amnesia known and based on the research I did, Memento appears to portray the disorder in
a very accurate light. Others with qualified opinions agree. CalTech neuroscientist, Christof Koch
said, “Memento is the most accurate portrayal of the different memory systems in the popular
media.” (Koch, Christof 2004. The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach, pg
196). Dr. Esther M. Sternberg, Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program at the
National Institute of Mental Health said the film, “Was close to a perfect exploration of the
neurobiology of memory”. She further expounds, “This thought provoking thriller is the kind of
movie that keeps reverberating in the viewer’s mind and each iteration makes one examine
preconceived notions in a different light. Memento is a movie for anyone interested in the
workings of memory and, indeed, in what it is that makes our own reality.” (Sternberg, E.M.,
June 1, 2001. Piecing Together a Puzzling World: Memento. Science Journal 292 [5522], pgs
1661-1662)
The story is rumored to have been conceived by the actual neuropsychological case
study of HM who developed severe anterograde memory impairment after neurosurgery to
control his epileptic seizures. If one wants to truly understand and explore the puzzle of memory
and what makes us who we are, Memento is certainly a study in of itself.