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June 15, 2009

The Man Who Lives Within the Present

In real life, there are people experiencing the same condition as Lucy Whitmore in the movie ' 50 First Dates'. In the movie itself, Lucy has memory of only one day, meaning that everyday she wakes up no longer having memories of the previous day. This could be a real big problem in life!


Clive Wearing, an expert in early music at the peak of his musical life back in 1985, contracted a virus which supposedly only causes cold sores. In Clive's case, the virus damaged the part of his brain which is resposible for storage of memory. Clive suffers from an acute and long lasting case of Anterograde Amnesia since then which greatly changed his life.

From that day onwards, Clive can no longer form new memories. To him, every moment is like waking up from a dream, he cannot remember things that happen seconds ago. Instead, Clive's memory only lasts for 7 seconds! As a result, he becomes a man without past. He is unable to remember any of his friends. However, he still recognizes his wife Deborah, but remembers her as his girlfriend. He greets Deborah happily every time they see each other, as if they have not seen each other in years, though she may have just left the room to deliver him a glass of water. Clive also lost the ability to link a type of food with taste, as he has forgotten.

Deborah has written a book titles " Forever Today" based on the condition of her husband's condition.

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