On Memory and “The Truth”

I have been watching “In Treatment“, an HBO drama about a psychotherapist, Paul Weston (with award winning performance by Gabriel Byrne). Each episode is a session with one of his patients, including one session with his own therapist, Gina, at the end of the week. The session with Gina covers some of the things that are going on with his patients but we also learn about Paul’s life. During the series his marriage falls apart and finds him living alone, working at creating a relationship with his two children. His father, with whom he had a very complicated relationship, dies and leaves him struggling to understand that relationship. These are the things he discusses with Gina, and we can see that with Paul as well as all of Paul’s patients, what happens and consequently what we make it mean has significant impact on how we live our lives.

I am really enjoying this show but it has brought up some interesting reflection on memory and how we process our memories and whether they are correct or not.

In one episode, Paul is taking with Gina about his recollection of a significant family event and she suggests that perhaps how he remembers it isn’t exactly what happened.

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