CAHSS Faculty Articles

Editorial: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Page

ORCID ID

0000-0002-9312-9780

ResearcherID

G-8814-2018

Publication Title

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy

ISSN

1752-0606

Publication Date

4-2005

Abstract

Recently, I had the opportunity to see the movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and I was struck by the similarities between the lives of the characters in the movie and the situations editors, reviewers, and authors face in the manuscript development process. In the movie, people have the option of having the painful memories of past relationships systematically erased from their minds. The theory being that, if they can rid themselves of all of the images, feelings, and thoughts that haunt them from relationships gone bad (i.e., the spotless mind), then they can move forward in their lives and begin to live and love once again (i.e., the eternal sunshine). When I watched the movie, I was struck by the irony of the characters’ attempts to change or improve their lives by having all of the sorrow-ridden memories of these soured relationships removed from their psyches. Their anticipated eternal sunshine was soon replaced by their heart-felt longing to revisit or recapture some of the good that was lost with the bad.

DOI

10.1111/j.1752-0606.2005.tb01551.x

Volume

31

Issue

2

First Page

141

Last Page

143

Link to Full Text
Peer Reviewed

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