History Main / EasyAmnesia

* In ''RandomHarvest'' (1942), Ronald Colman plays a WorldWarI veteran hospitalized with shell shock and complete retrograde amnesia. He escapes from the hospital, marries Film/GreerGarson, and settles down to a happy small-town life -- until he makes a business trip to London, where he is involved in a car accident that causes him to recover his lost memories... but completely forget his entire life since the war, including his marriage.
* In ''Film/{{Spider-Man}} 3'', Harry Osborn has temporary amnesia after being badly injured during a fight with Peter Parker. It not only results in rather convenient selective memory loss, but also [[IdentityAmnesia changes Harry's personality substantially]]. In the comics, similar tactics were used on occasion to make Norman Osborn forget that he was the Green Goblin.

* ''CleanSlate'' is about a detective in the middle of a big case when an injury leaves him with a unique form of amnesia: every time he goes to bed, he wakes up with without his memory. This leads him to leave various notes and messages to himself to clarify his situation until he recovers, while still trying to crack the case.
* In ''AmericanDreamer'', the main character has a concussion and thus thinks she's the heroine of her favorite mystery novels.
* In ''SnowWhiteAndTheThreeStooges'', PrinceCharming gets hit on the head when an assassin was trying to kill him (but the Stooges saved him). He grew up without knowing his past.

* In Manning Coles' ''A Toast to Tomorrow'' British agent Tommy Hambledon got amnesia and believed himself to be a German citizen. It took fifteen years and a familiar face for his memory to return.

* This trope gets referenced in a [[SelfDeprecation self-deprecatory joke]] in Creator/BrandonSanderson's Literature/AlcatrazSeries, when the FirstPersonSmartass narrator after revealing a [[spoiler: fake]] spoiler suggests that hitting yourself on the head with one of Brandon's {{Doorstopper}} novels would be a convenient way to forget about it.

** Another episode has Data getting amnesia while on a pre-industrial alien world. This at least is justified somewhat, since Data is an [[RidiculouslyHumanRobat Android]] and thus his "memory loss" can be explained away as a malfunction.

* "Jason Bourne", in RobertLudlum's ''[[Literature/TheBourneSeries Bourne Trilogy]]'' and [[Film/TheBourneSeries the movies loosely based on them]], forgets his name and past, but instinctively remembers his superspy/assassin training. It is revealed that the conditioning he received in Project Treadstone made him a psychological accident waiting to happen. In the film, the amnesia is triggered by a psychotic break, several gunshot wounds, and nearly drowning; in the novel, it was being shot several times including once in the head, being cast adrift in a stormy sea for several hours, and lingering in a prolonged near-death state.

->'''Saturn Girl:''' (as Supergirl removes her helmet) "Great rings of Saturn! ''Unknown Boy'' was really ''Supergirl!"''
->'''Supergirl''': "Yes, I remember now... that ''is'' my name! ''Supergirl!'' Your speaking it has made me remember everything I had forgotten."

* ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex'': Index remembers very little of her own life due to [[spoiler:periodic mind-wipes by her magician caretakers]].
** Also, after a particular incident in the anime with certain [[spoiler:white fleathers, Touma]] seems to have lost of all [[spoiler:his]] memory, and just fakes it to everyone.
** Mikoto finds out about it in Book 14, and in Book 16 she confronts [[spoiler:Touma]] about it. It's also the same book where she realizes she loves him, going so far as to demand him to report any enemy to her so that she could kill them for him.

-->'''Illya Kuryakin:''' Just how effective are these capsules, total amnesia?
-->'''Alexander Waverly:''' Oh, I daresay he'll still be able to count up to ten in Swahili, or conjugate a few simple Latin verbs, but he'll not be able to remember a thing about U.N.C.L.E., or have the remotest idea who he is, for at least 72 hours, by which time the information will be in our hands... I hope.

-->'''Mike:''' So, Crow, about this amnesia of yours...
-->'''Crow:''' Oh, it's terrible, Mike. The list of things I can't remember is endless! I can't remember you, I can't remember Cambot, I can't remember Fisk's home run off the foul pole in the bottom of the 12th in Game Six of the '75 World Series!
-->'''Servo:''' (* working a crossword puzzle* ) Okay, 'Mythical beast', eight letters, beginning with...
-->'''Crow:''' Minotaur.

--> Balki: "Hello, My name is Cousin Larry Appleton."
--> Larry: "Hello, My name is Cousin Larry Appleton."
--> Balki: "How are you?"
--> Larry (in a sad tone): "Fine."
--> Balki sighs.

-->'''* click* '''
-->'''Church:''' Uh oh.
-->'''Caboose:''' What? What happened?
-->'''Church:''' [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Crap]]. Instead of turning ''on'' my long-term memory, I think I just shut ''off'' my short-term memory.
-->'''Caboose:''' Oh. [[TheDitz Is that bad?]]
-->(beat)
-->'''Church:''' Huh? [[ShapedLikeItself Is what bad?]]
-->'''Caboose:''' Your memory thing getting shut off.
-->'''Church:''' Who shut off my memory?
-->'''Caboose:''' You did.
-->'''Church:''' I did what?
-->'''Caboose:''' Shut off your memory.
-->'''Church:''' Why do you want me to shut off my memory?
-->'''Caboose:''' No, it's already off.
-->'''Church:''' [[OverlyLongGag What's already off?]]
-->'''Caboose:''' [[OverlyLongGag Your memory.]]
-->'''Church:''' [[OverlyLongGag Yeah what about it?]]
-->'''Tucker:''' Wow. Well, this is an improvement. HEY, YOU!
-->'''Church:''' Huh? You talkin' to me?
-->'''Tucker:''' YES, YOU! DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE!
-->(beat)
-->'''Church: ''' ''(to Caboose)'' Well, are you gonna answer him?
-->'*BANG*'
-->'''Caboose:''' Oh no!
-->'''Tucker:''' Jesus Christ!
-->'''Church:''' OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE WE YELLING ABOUT?
-->'''Tucker:''' I think they broke into the temple!
-->'''Church: ''' ''(while inside said temple)'' Oh, that's not good, where's the temple?
-->'''Tucker:''' Jesus Christ, just don't let him talk to me!
-->'''Church and Caboose: ''' Okay, don't talk to him!

* Double H in ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' gets Easy Amnesia not from a whack on the head, but from [[ElectricTorture prolonged exposure to alien lightning.]] It temporarily renders him a CloudCuckoolander with what appears to be an [[LordErrorProne action movie hero complex]] and a tendency to [[MyNameIsNotDurwood mangle names]]. He recovers after a boss battle that requires you to [[UseYourHead use his head as a battering ram several times]], which is something of the ''inverse'' of how this trope usually works...

* Inverted in PaperinikNewAdventures: Photomas is one of the best lawyer of XIII century,but he can't remember names(including the protagonist's) and words.However,after a bad hit on the head he suddendly remember everything.Unfortunatly it's explained it won't last.

* Those suffering from concussions often don't remember much from just before and a certain amount of time after being hit on the head, among other side effect.

** But it gets tragically [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] with [[spoiler: Emmeryn, whose trauma-induced amnesia has left her in a state of barely being able to talk, which she never recovers from.]]

* Jeremy Darling of ''DirtySexyMoney'' fakes a case of this as a way to try to figure out how to get Nola out of a jam, which he is not supposed to know she is in.

* In ''SonicHeroes'', after his fall from outer space in ''SonicAdventure2'', Shadow got amnesia and can’t even remember his own name. He can only remember one major thing in ''ShadowTheHedgehog''. Also this is a major point in the plot of ''ShadowTheHedgehog''.

* A stock plot of WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry cartoons: Tom takes a whack to the noggin, forgets he's supposed to hate Jerry and befriends him. Some point later he takes another whack to the head and remembers who he really is, but Jerry just assumes they're still friends. HilarityEnsues.

* ''The Recognition of Shakuntala'', an episode from the [[OlderThanYouThink Ancient]] [[IndianLanguages Sanskrit]] epic ''{{Mahabharata}}'' that was later [[AscendedExtra Expanded]] into a theatrical drama by the Indian playwright Kalidasa around the 1st century BC, is probably the UrExample of this trope. It's a [[BoyMeetsGirl Girl Meets Boy]] story about a woman named Shakuntala who meets Dushyanta and they get married him, only for him to get cursed with [[LaserGuidedAmnesia Amnesia]] and completely forget her. The only way to lift the curse is to show him the ring that he gave her, but she loses the ring in a river. She eventually finds the ring by the end of the story, makes him remember, and then they live HappilyEverAfter.

* This trope is central to the plot of ''[[Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen Götterdämmerung]]'', by Creator/RichardWagner, making this OlderThanRadio.

* In the BigFinishDoctorWho radio drama ''Orbis'', the Doctor has amnesia ... Sort of. Mostly it's because he's started to forget things that happened before his six hundred year stint on Orbis; however, he still remembers Earth, the TARDIS, and the events that led to his living on Orbis (He was [[spoiler:pulled off the edge of a balcony into a gigantic canyon by Morbius]].) Oddly, though Lucie was present during that event, [[spoiler:he doesn't remember her at all.]] In the end it's a combination of time (e.g: a few hours) and Lucie slapping him across the face several times that brings his memory back.

* on the ''CaptainPlanet'' episode "A Twist of Fate:" Wheeler hits his head during an earthquake, loses his memory, and he has to live the life of a poor child in an anonymous Latin-American city.

* In ''{{Naruto}}'' a repentant bandit fell from a cliff and became an amnesiac as a result, earning him the nickname "Menma" in Konoha. Shortly afterward events in the village reminded him of his past as a bandit, but he chose to keep his returned memories to himself.

** Another realistic treatment is Piccolo's, or rather, Kami's memories. After arriving on Earth in a spaceship as a child he had absolutely no memories of whom he is or what he's doing there - he speculates that he probably hit his head. He also never recovers from it, and unlike Goku he never even finds out what his real name was (no, Piccolo is not his name; read the manga).

* ''{{Dragonball}} Z'''s treatment of amnesia seems closer to reality than most: Goku got amnesia as a child when he fell out of his Grandpa's hands and down a steep gorge. He never recovered from it, and whenever a character would refer to it they would almost always mention how Goku nearly died from the fall.

* [[VisualNovel/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]] suffers a head blow that causes partial amnesia at the start of the second game, just so the people around him can introduce the game mechanics to him, and by extension the player, all over again.

* In the first case of ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Justice For All'', Phoenix gets clubbed on the head just before the trial, and (naturally) loses his memory. This [[JustifiedTrope makes a bit more sense]] when you realize the level is the tutorial of a sequel.

* In ''AceAttorneyInvestigations 2'', Kay gets pushed off a buliding and gets hit with amnesia. Don't worry, [[ItGotBetter she gets better]], luckily.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' the PlayerCharacter is found by the Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick in the middle of a field with no memory of his/her past life. Notably, when the Avatar tries to explain this, Frederick is doubtful and suspects them of hiding something.
** This comes up again with [[spoiler: Morgan, the Avatar's KidFromTheFuture]], who had a similar experience.
** But it gets tragically [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] with [[spoiler: Emmeryn, whose trauma-induced amnesia has left her in a state of barely being able to talk, which she never recovers from.]]

* In ''FireEmblemAwakening'' the PlayerCharacter is found by the Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick in the middle of a field with no memory of his/her past life. Notably, when the Avatar tries to explain this, Frederick is doubtful and suspects them of hiding something.

* In ''Anime/TheBigO'', the entire city is suffering from a curious form of amnesia. Almost exactly forty years prior to the events in the series a massive cataclysm nearly destroyed the world and left all survivors with no memories. Although probably not much of a trope as the entire show deals with the nature of memories and what they really are, treating them more as ghosts than anything else.
** Justified as well; [[spoiler: there ''is no'' "before forty years ago."]]