Day 330: ~ Identity ~
[It's late night, early morning when Roxas contemplates asking some questions to the late-night owls, the insomniacs, and the unrested population of Scorched. He has too much on his mind, but he knows stress has been building up from the recent rally to his overly frequent trips into the mist and the constant nightmares that come with it. It's
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How that relates to identity… The nervous system is constantly changing and adapting as a result of new knowledge, which eventually all becomes memory. Thus experience and memory do physiologically change us. Remove all memories from a person at one stage in life; or remove them from the same person at another stage: would their default impulses-the structure of the brain's default mode network-be the same, or would the memories, however inaccessible, have altered them on a structural, subconscious, automatic level?
Different kinds of memory they yield different evidence for this purpose. General Amnesia results in loss of personal memories-the standard epitome of an Identity Crisis-but not general knowledge. Procedural, objective, sometimes autonomic memory remains. For example, if a man with trauma-induced general amnesia can't remember his name, he still may, if he doesn't think about it, be able to write his signature through muscle-memory.[1] This suggests something left intact despite the memories being inaccessible. This is also a type where memories may return. For disease-related loss such as Alzheimer's, there does seem to be a degradation in personality: state of behavior and reaction follows memory regression.
It is also quite possible to… let's say for convenience brainwash someone, with or without preexisting memories. That can be as dramatic as inducing brainwave alteration, breaking someone through reconditioning; inducing psychosis; or something less dramatic, and often positive, such as convincing, teaching or reteaching. Positive or negative, without preexisting learning and memories, there is likely to be less conflict and resistance to the new ideas. So it is easier, from a state of ignorance or innocence, to be formed or reformed into an identity.
But ultimately… our memories may be what elevate us, but they are only one facet of an utterly unique being. Genetics provide most of our default settings. Our physicality and appearance dictate much of how we interrelate with our surrounding environment and cohabitants. Our brain chemistry can influence… very much.
So I think. That in most regards, we are each a finite set of options for an "identity". Memory is what empowers us with selective choice. …As the lady above said: to realize a chosen version of ourselves.
For your second… define "vacation".
[OOC: EVERYTHING BOLD&ITALIC IS PARAPHRASED FROM THIS ARTICLE BY LIZ FRONTINO at Bryn Mawr. Sometimes I need a character to be cleverer and better-versed than I am. I take no credit, no plagiarism intended. Non-bold/ital inserts are myself and therefore more technically dubious.
[1]got this phenomenon off an episode of "Castle". So let's just pretend it's got a scientific basis 'cause it's really cool.]
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...All I know about vacations is that they're days that you're supposed to do what you like and you don't have any real work or missions. Something like that.
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So then the thing to do is turn a vacation into its own work or mission.
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