Emotions, Memory, and the Wrath of Achilles: Observations from Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

Psychology tells us that when one's emotions are aroused the vividness and completeness of one's memory for an event is enhanced. But the impact of emotion has negative effects too. Psychologists have studied a phenomenon described as "narrowing of attention": under certain circumstances emotion promotes memory for details central to an emotion-laden event at the expense of details at the periphery. The Iliadic Achilles is an interesting case-study. Achilles' vivid memory of the quarrel with Agamemnon drives him to sit on the sidelines as his Achaean comrades fall in battle. What the external audience takes away from those early scenes is confusion: how could the individual who has been introduced as the hero of this tale abandon his comrades - and the Achaean enterprise itself - so readily? Show more