Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Psychogenic Fugue

I read this fascinating albeit brief article about a man stricken with psychogenic fugue, which is a rare form of amnesia and apparently akin to post-traumatic stress disorder. He basically went out to walk his dog and then suddenly entered this fugue state where he no longer knew who he was or where he was going and basically became homeless for the next 25 days and wandered around aimlessly, until he happened to be walking by a construction site where he was having a new home built and one of the construction guys recognized him. After the construction guy started to talk to him, the man started to slowly remember things and now he's back home safe with his memory intact EXCEPT for the time where he was missing. He only remembers bits and pieces of that time. So very very interesting. It would make an interesting idea for a novel, wouldn't it? But I also would be interested to read a biography of someone stricken with this disease, I wonder if there are any.

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