Continuity amid chaos: Neurotrauma, loss of memory, and sense of self

In serious illness or disability, individuals commonly say that their sense of self has dramatically changed. One might expect that the experience of a radically altered sense of self would be even more profound in individuals after neuro-trauma because it is the brain itself that suddenly, and often literally, becomes "strange." The aim of this study was to investigate how people left with autobiographical memory impairments - impairments that also affect the capacity to organize complex linguistic productions such as autobiographical narratives - experience themselves and, specifically, their sense of self. Seven adults who had primarily anterograde memory impairments for 1 year were interviewed. Regardless of the profound changes in their everyday functioning and lives, the stories the participants told evoke a surprising sense of a continuous self. Employing several narrative and discursive techniques, they emphasized sameness and an unbroken connection between their pre- and post- morbid lives. We believe that most individuals felt they did not have to recover their former sense of self because they subjectively seemed to have never lost it.