Amnesia is often the subjects of books and films. Some romanticised stories have been told about people loosing their memory through some trauma and loose this memory for months or weeks before remembering their original identity. Often it takes a jar to the head to recover this memory.

I news story I heard on NPRs' this American Life with Ira Glass did some interview with verious victums of Amnesia. What was intreguing was that in all cases the victums only lost memory for a few hours.

A research Psychiatrist stated that amnesia victums fell into three categories,

1) Temory memory loss of less than a day due to trauma to the brain, inebriation, drug use or fatigue. This is most common.

2) Terminal (perminant) memory loss through brain injury, tumors or psychosis. In these events the victum never recovers their memory.

3) Voluntary memory loss, this is common in victums of severe psychological trauma such as abuse victums or shell shock victums. Such memory loss is due to a voluntary reflex. Often the victum can remeber but choose to forget.

Long term memory loss as described in various books and films are actually unknown and when reported is usually found to be bogus.