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Viewpoint

librarian (p. 28). As noted in a Harvard YouTube interview
(Halpern, 2021), his is a book of stories. This blending of the
science of the brain with case studies and illustrations makes
the information accessible to the general reader. An extensive
index helps the reader locate information more easily.
In addition to explaining how the brain creates
memories, Small discusses new theories related to the
role of forgetting: “Forgetting is a cognitive gift” (p. 38).
The prologue and first chapter describe how “both normal
memory and normal forgetting work in unison to balance
our minds so that we can healthily engage chaotic and
sometimes hurtful environments” (p. 40). Other chapters
focus on such diverse topics as autism, post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD), creativity, and decision-making.
In Chapter 2, Small discusses the work of researchers
who have studied children with autism—those who need
routines or have behavioral inflexibility. He summarizes the
research, noting that inflexibility (always needing the same
routine) may be due to diminished forgetting and that new
research indicates “in people with autism the control knob for
forgetting appears to have been turned down” (p. 51). This
reduction can explain why some with autism have great rote
memory. Often autistic children focus on parts rather than wholes, limiting their
ability to generalize. For example, in a study involving putting together a jigsaw
puzzle, autistic subjects benefited less from seeing the picture than did nonautistic
subjects. The inability to see the whole and to generalize may explain the need for
sameness and the lack of social interaction skills among many persons with autism.
In Chapter 3, Small reveals personal information about his time serving in
the Israeli army to a colleague whose research at Columbia University focuses
on PTSD and memory. PTSD symptoms include the inability to forget the event;
the individual often has flashbacks causing emotional distress. New imaging
technology shows that the “source of impaired emotional forgetting is typically” in
the amygdala part of the brain (p. 76), a part that “processes and codes emotional
information” (p. 73). One typical treatment for PTSD is exposure therapy, in which
the individual is repeatedly exposed to the trauma, thereby activating forgetting;
other treatments include cognitive therapy or drugs that can lower amygdala activity
and encourage normal forgetting (p. 78). According to Small, such forgetting frees
the mind, allowing one to forget and forgive, reducing the impact of the trauma.
In an interview with Lopes (2021), Small elaborated on PTSD and said that social
loneliness plays an important role in who does and does not develop PTSD.
The amygdala’s role in other emotions, such as fear and rage, and
in social temperament is the focus of Chapter 4. Examples from animal
studies comparing aggressive chimps and the calmer bonobos and studies
of responses to school bullies are provided to show the working of the
amygdala in balancing of fears needed for survival and forgetting them
enough for positive social interactions. Small states, “Without the benefits
of fear forgetting, we would live dreadfully lonely lives” (p. 105).

18 · Volume 88-4