selective amnesia
1
8.2
- noun
- /sɪˈlɛktɪv æmˈniːʒə/
- Specialized
:
amnesia selectiva
- His selective amnesia about his past mistakes made it easy for him to repeat them.
Examples
-
He seemed to have selective amnesia about the events of that night, conveniently forgetting his involvement.
-
With regard to the past, it is selective amnesia.
Academic text (2003) -
You seem to be suffering from selective amnesia, Streebek.
-
"Was that selective amnesia?"
Blog text (3) -
It was like I'd been struck on exactly the right spot on my skull to cause a particularly selective amnesia.
Fiction book (1995) -
Buric surprised Prieto by claiming a kind of selective amnesia.
Blog text (19) -
While Arab commentators sometimes complain of the West's lack of historical memory, there is selective amnesia among many in the region, even those critical of the new dynamics.
Academic text (2007) -
After the argument, she displayed selective amnesia, claiming she couldn't recall what was said.
Synonyms
93
6.7
A loss of memory often after injury, illness, or trauma
40
3.4
A problem when a person cannot remember information or past experiences
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'forgetting specific events or information' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'selective' (choosing specific) with 'amnesia' (loss of memory). This is a regular adjective+noun composition that follows common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Selective amnesia combines selective (choosing) and amnesia ('forgetting'). Imagine someone with a remote control who presses a button to erase only the bad memories, and that's why the phrase means 'forgetting' only certain events, often 'on purpose' or for a 'convenient' reason.