Forgetting is usually looked upon as a personal failure. If we try to remember an item of information and can’t come up with it, we blame ourselves. Forgetfulness is especially worrying to us because of the fear that our memory failures may be the result of a degenerative brain disease such as Alzheimer’s.
It’s an understandable fear. Our memories — the facts we know and the events we can recall from our past — form the basis of our identity.