Memory is one of the most important factors in recalling past actions, interactions, and relationships throughout your life. The ability to remember things you and the people around you have said and done continue to shape you as a person, even years later; single events can change the course of your life. Therefore understanding the way you perceive yourself can be reliant on memories alone, and your individual identity depends almost entirely on your memory as well.
Despite most people’s best efforts, many listen quite willingly to the opinions of those around them. Humans are an extremely social species, and therefore rely on the ideas of others to create their own, and that includes shaping a personal identity to match what the majority …show more content…
Most people are inherently afraid of instinctual fears -- like sudden loud noises or the dark -- but more specific fears, like the fear of spiders or elevators, are completely learned and oftentimes based off of a past memory. By recollecting traumatic past experiences including a specific activity or object, a person’s understanding of their identity can be several altered. For me, I become slightly anxious being followed up the stairs. Ever since I could independently climb from the first floor to the second, my dad would chase me up the flight and playfully pinch my legs or smack my bottom. It became a sort of a game when I was younger: Can the Toddler Outrun the Very Large Dad?. However, now that I am almost 17, I still instinctually run up the stairs in an anxious fervor when someone is even casually following me. Although my ‘fear’ is generally mild, those with more severe fears often create a lifestyle that purposefully does not include these fears, like those with the fear of dogs (cynophobia) or the fear of disease (hypochondria). Although these terrors can sometimes be irrational, many are derived from horrific past experiences and memories, like dog attacks or family medical history. The fear of a person, place, or thing, can cause us to shape our lives and personas to avoid these things, and a single traumatic memory can trigger the fear that causes everything about a person’s life and identity to
Despite most people’s best efforts, many listen quite willingly to the opinions of those around them. Humans are an extremely social species, and therefore rely on the ideas of others to create their own, and that includes shaping a personal identity to match what the majority …show more content…
Most people are inherently afraid of instinctual fears -- like sudden loud noises or the dark -- but more specific fears, like the fear of spiders or elevators, are completely learned and oftentimes based off of a past memory. By recollecting traumatic past experiences including a specific activity or object, a person’s understanding of their identity can be several altered. For me, I become slightly anxious being followed up the stairs. Ever since I could independently climb from the first floor to the second, my dad would chase me up the flight and playfully pinch my legs or smack my bottom. It became a sort of a game when I was younger: Can the Toddler Outrun the Very Large Dad?. However, now that I am almost 17, I still instinctually run up the stairs in an anxious fervor when someone is even casually following me. Although my ‘fear’ is generally mild, those with more severe fears often create a lifestyle that purposefully does not include these fears, like those with the fear of dogs (cynophobia) or the fear of disease (hypochondria). Although these terrors can sometimes be irrational, many are derived from horrific past experiences and memories, like dog attacks or family medical history. The fear of a person, place, or thing, can cause us to shape our lives and personas to avoid these things, and a single traumatic memory can trigger the fear that causes everything about a person’s life and identity to