The Shattered Identity
Below is a MRR and PLR article in category Reference Education -> subcategory Psychology.
The Shattered Identity
Summary
Dan cannot remember being Dan, and he has no recollection of murdering Jack. While he seems to have lost his past identity, Dan remains able to distinguish between right and wrong. This raises a fascinating question: Should Dan be held morally, and possibly legally, accountable for Jack's murder?
Exploring Identity Through "Shattered"
In the 1991 film "Shattered," Dan Merrick survives a catastrophic accident only to develop complete amnesia about his past. As his face is reconstructed by surgeons, Dan begins to rebuild his life with the help of his loving wife. Yet, a sense of unease persists, as he never quite recovers his true identity. As the plot twists and turns, Dan is led to suspect that he might have killed his wife's lover, Jack. This mystery challenges us to consider:
If Dan doesn't remember being Dan or committing the crime, should he be held accountable? What if he only forgot the crime but remembered everything else? Do our moral and legal responsibilities rely on the integrity of our memories? Should Dan be punished for a crime he cannot recall, or would he be justified in feeling wronged?
The Complexity of Human Consciousness
Various states of consciousness, including dissociation and selective amnesia, complicate our understanding of identity: hypnosis, trance, dissociative disorders, and more. Consider if Dan suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder. If one of his alternate personalities, or "alters," committed the crime, is Dan still responsible? Is the alter responsible? How do time and personal change affect accountability?
Understanding Identity: Who Is Dan?
Buddhism likens a person to a river, maintaining identity despite constant change. Our bodies and minds evolve, and almost all our cells are replaced over time. Identity, then, is more a function of time and memory than physicality.
Memory, personality, skills, and emotions create our self-identity. But if Dan cannot access his memories, can he truly be the same person he was? He seems to have a new self-identity that others struggle to accept as "Dan."
Repression and Unconscious Identity
Memory defines identity, but what about repressed memories and the unconscious mind? Our unconscious often shapes our behavior and personality, and some psychoanalysts see identity as a dynamic, evolving construct. Dan may have a new self?"born of his unconscious and altered memories.
The Memory Link
Hume proposed that mind possession relies on states of consciousness linked by memory. But what about the unconscious? Is it part of our identity narrative, and can it be remembered? Background mental phenomena and our beliefs, though not always conscious, shape our identity. Introspection and memory might be mechanisms that make identity conscious.
Responsibility and Identity
Self-identity is both constant and incorrigible. If Dan lacks access to his prior self-identity, can he be accountable for a past act? Is he the same person who committed the crime?
To possess a self-identity, one must have both a brain and a consistent personal narrative perceived as humanly comprehensible. Current Dan has a self-identity?"not Dan’s old one but a new version. This redefining of self disrupts our conventional understanding of accountability.
We fear waking in a strange place without knowing who we are, yet identity is more than the sum of memories. While Dan resembles Dan in many ways, his lack of memory detaches him from his past self. While he may have killed Jack, by ethical and philosophical standards, it seems unjust to hold this new Dan responsible.
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