Sorry, that's just not something I would forget *SPOILERS*

Vath121, I had a traumatic experience happened while I was 7 or 8 and blocked it completely out of my head ( Not one memory of it...nothing.... erased ). It wasn't until a developed a phobia and had to seek treatment for it that I was able to retrieve the experience.

It happens, it is very real to block something completely in that way.

Believe me, it can happen. It is called being in shock and I have had it happen to me - I have a good three hours of time missing from when I was 9 and no matter how hard I try to remember it I can't. I have been told what happened in that period of time multiple times but I just can't remember it. This was over 20 years ago. Granted, forgetting her whole life before hand is a stretch but I suppose it is possible since she probably had nothing with her to help her remember that life - I also have a feeling that the family that adopted her probably supported her in blocking it out.

I don't understand how many people don't understand how this is possible. It is extremely common within traumatic childhood experiences. I have blocked out most of my memories from ages 3-7. I am now nearly 19 and have been through countless psychologists and counsellors without anything happening. When I think I remember something, I can never seem to work out if it's my actually memories or if it was my child mind wanting something concrete of my own that i recreated from others' accounts. It really is difficult, and it really upsets me that people think that traumatic stuff can't be forgotten. It's a coping technique.

She had seen her mother, father, and best friend die right in front of her...yeah I think that's something someone would want to forget.

I've blocked out some traumatic things. A large part of my childhood was deeply unhappy. I've blocked out a lot of specific stuff, that's just disappeared. I do remember some things but not everything. Just being unhappy and afraid a lot of the time. I was ok as long as I wasn't at home where my dad was, but at home my life was miserable. I just can't recall many specifics. Huge parts of my life have just disappeared from my memory; I have very few childhood memories, most of them from when I was outside my home, hanging out with friends, the good things. My home memories were all the same anyway; getting hit all the time, getting screamed at and cursed at, living in fear of having my dad around. I can remember the general themes and that's enough. I'm glad i've lost most of those memories.

As for the movie, though, what I don't understand is why Florence didn't remember everything when she got there. First of all, she's in her own home. Secondly, the maid from her childhood is still there. And thirdly, every day she's seeing a kid who she witnessed being shot to death right in front of her face. Wouldn't all that trigger the memories to come back? I mean, I can't remember a lot of specifics from my childhood, but I remember my home, I remember my dad. I guess it depends on the person and the level of trauma, I suppose. I was hit all the time and emotionally abused but nothing worse than that. She witnessed her dad killing her whole family and then himself. Perhaps the brain goes further in such circumstances, even to the extent where the person doesn't recognize her own childhood home and the people who lived in it. I guess.

I still don't like the twist, though.

The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of history.
-Mao Zedong

I don't have a problem with Florence blocking out the traumatic events surrounding the deaths of her parents and half-brother. I find more far-fetched that she blocked out everything about her life before adoption. Many people here report forgetting traumatic events, and it is a common phenomenon, but how many not only forget the events themselves but all the circumstances of their entire life up to age 8, substituting false memories for the entire period - including even the part of the world they lived in? I won't claim it never happens, but it is surely much rarer and makes for a bit a stretch as part of a fictional plot. It's not enough to ruin the film for me, but it does reach a bit into the land of cliche.

It is possible, she went into shock or had a psychotic break or something and just like in an accident she had amnesia.
The reason why counseling didn't help probably because this is set in 1921 and they probably figured it's easier just to let her forget.

Let yourself be happy

And yet people block out much worse and lesser things all the time, I guess you are just telling us you are special, Vath121, we will all sleep much better in that knowledge.



Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov