Talk:Mindwipe

Babylon 5
There was an episode of Babylon 5 that dealt with mindwipes, I don't recall what it was titled. Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 13:23, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Complaint about lack of references

 * The listed sci-fi stories that mention mind-wiping, are enough reference, surely? Anthony Appleyard (talk) 05:36, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
 * No, they're really not. If nothing else, they're all primary sources.  Does this article really need to exist at all?  Couldn't it just redirect to Brainwashing or the like?  Nutiketaiel (talk) 12:27, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
 * That shouldn't be viewed as a complaint, but rather as an attempt to inform readers that sources are needed, to comply with WP:V. Actually, the main reason why I put this tag is because of the outcome of Articles for deletion/Mindwipe (2nd nomination). The article should address the concerns that were raised in the deletion discussion.
 * I agree with Nutiketaiel, the listed sci-fi stories are not sufficient. The article should include sources discussing mindwiping itself, and not just mentioning it, to avoid original research. I tried to find ones, with no success. What are the other terms used to refer to mindwiping? Korg (talk) 00:37, 7 April 2009 (UTC)
 * The effects of the Nienna and Glaurung magical case are described well in The Children of Húrin. Borg assimilation is familiar to any Star Trek fan. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 05:15, 7 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, again, secondary sources would be nice. Nutiketaiel (talk) 11:15, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Mindwiping =/= altering memories; maybe this article should be renamed?
Wiping generally refers to "erasing" as in "wiping a hard disk" (formatting/emptying it). Hence a "mindwipe" doesn't refer to alterations of memory.

I removed the "or altered" part in the lede.

As there's no other dedicated page to memory in fiction one option would be to renamed this article into something like "Memory in fiction" or "Memory erasure and alteration in fiction" or "Memory erasure and manipulation in fiction" with "Mindwiping" just becoming a subsection of that article. "Mindwiping" as a term afaik isn't that much used in science fiction anyway and there are many science fiction stories which feature memory alterations or alike but not memory erasure...actually even some entries in here, such as The Children of Húrin (if I recall correctly; read the short version in The Silmarillion a while ago) aren't about mindwiping but unspecified memory loss or memory alterations.

--Fixuture (talk) 21:26, 18 August 2015 (UTC)


 * I've commented out the Tolkien and Total Recall examples for now until it is decided how much this will cover. There's already a Mind control in popular culture which includes all the brainwashing techniques. If this is to be a subset of that to be focused on memories, that would be fine. The Memory in fiction category would have more of the psychological aspects than just mind control such as amnesia, short-term memory loss, photographic memory, Rashomon effect (different accounts of the same event). AngusWOOF ( bark  •  sniff ) 22:45, 18 August 2015 (UTC) updated 23:11, 18 August 2015 (UTC)


 * It should not include the hypnosis cases where the subject is mind controlled or possessed briefly or has temporary amnesia but when they return to normal, they naturally "forget" the recent events; that happens way too often in all sorts of stories. It has to be quite deliberate and last a bit as with the neuralyzer. There is the other direction too, uploading new information to the brain as with The Matrix "I know kung fu" and Johnny Mnemonic. AngusWOOF ( bark  •  sniff ) 23:11, 18 August 2015 (UTC)