self-contempation is a curse

[ymf]

"And just as the very act of measuring an atomic particle can alter what is measured, so the act of reflecting on an experience can alter the memory of it.... Sometimes, said poet Theodore Roethke (1975), 'self-contemplation is a curse, that makes an old confusion worse.'"

Comments

Maybe..

[earthenvessels]

Yes, that can be very true. However, it is this very ability that makes us more than just walking hard disks.

Also, it is inevitable. Don't you find your memories gaining more depth, becoming more coloured and layered as you walk through life? Is this loss or gain?

Re: Maybe..

[ymf]

Coloured, yes. But unfortunately, they don't often increase in depth.

I suppose the attitude ultimately determines whether it's a loss or a gain. If you try to be positively reflective, it's useful. But for me, I think about things so much, I get confused as to whether I've actually done something, or if that were all in my mind. *gulps*

[tokatumoana]

Sometimes I experience something where I feel a certain way about a certain situation; but in retrospect, my (analytical) thoughts destroy that intuition and I impose a different emotion on the situation.
In short, what I feel from the memory is not the same as what I felt during the actual event.

Am I making any sense?

[ymf]

yup, it does. (= do you do that deliberately though?

[allogenes]

A particle is matter, memory is information. You can read and re-read information without having to alter it. Not that I think memories are perfect or anything, but it is certainly not a requirement.

[ymf]

It's not about having to alter the memory, but that quite often, we unknowingly rewrite that information what our new perspective.

[allogenes]

Actually that is true--but that is the problem with the metaphor, the quote says:

"And just as the very act of measuring an atomic particle can alter what is measured..."

but it is not a "can" it is a "must." Do you distinguish between reliving and remembering.

[ymf]

why "must"? but yes, i think i can distinguish between reliving and remembering.