Solomon Shereshevsky

Imagine being able to remember everything you’ve ever heard, seen, or learned. Sounds pretty amazing, right?

What if I told you there was a hidden cost?

This is the real-life story of Solomon Shereshevsky, a human being who dealt with this double-edged sword his entire life.

Moscow in the 1920s was an exciting place, bursting with revolutionary ideas and scientific rigor. The newly formed Soviet state had a lot of innovative thinkers, including one prominent neuroscientist named Alexander Luria. A meeting with a journalist named Shereshevsky was about to change his life forever.

Luria was an emerging figure in the field of neuropsychology. Maybe Shereshevsky was there to interview Luria for a series of articles focusing on the latest developments in psychology and neurology, or maybe they were discussing human behavior in the socio-political climate of post-revolutionary Russia.

One way or another, the two discussed some things in detail, and Luria noticed that Shereshevsky never once took notes. To his astonishment, when Luria quizzed him on specific details, Shereshevsky had no problem recalling every single detail with uncanny precision.

Whatever the reason for their first meeting, it’s clear that Luria’s curiosity took hold and led to subsequent, regular meetings.

As Luria delved deeper, he began systematically testing Shereshevsky's memory with lists of random words, complex mathematical equations, and even foreign language phrases. Every time, Shereshevsky reproduced the information flawlessly, not just immediately after but even weeks and months later.

There was something else curious about S, as Luria began to call him. S did not merely recall information—he experienced it.

Today, we call this condition synesthesia. Tons of people throughout history who are remembered for their extraordinary memories probably used a similar approach. The idea is that words trigger vivid sensory responses. The word “green” might invoke the taste of mint, for instance.

This trick is often used by memory courses today. If someone is teaching you how to remember things, there’s a very good chance they are invoking synesthesia.

Talk about a match made in heaven! Luria, with his insatiable curiosity about the inner workings of the human mind, had met his match in S. Meanwhile, Shereshevsky went on his own journey of self-discovery, slowly beginning to understand his powerful gift… and its powerful curse.

Unfortunately, Shereshevsky’s synesthesia was extraordinary in more than one capacity. While being able to taste, feel, and hear a number when it was spoken aloud or written down, S could instantly, vividly recall any important piece of information. On the other hand, this wasn’t a tap he could turn off or a switch that could be flipped off.

Shereshevsky was stuck with vivid recall, and faced with an overwhelming amount of information coming in. This came at a significant cost to his daily life and psychological well-being.

Imagine never being able to forget anything. Not only would painful memories persist for your entire life, but every little trivial event in your life would crowd your thoughts, often making it difficult to concentrate on the present. This was S’s life.

Even worse, synesthesia saw to it that S would have a hard time dealing with routine daily tasks. A simple conversation could trigger a cascade of colors, tastes, and tactile sensations. This constant sensory overload made ordinary interactions and tasks unexpectedly challenging and exhausting.

He once described his mind as a "chaotic storehouse" where the past constantly interfered with the present.

It’s probably not a huge surprise that Shereshevsky's unique cognitive abilities impacted his social interactions. He took metaphors and idioms literally due to his concrete, sensory-bound understanding of words, and people communicate with metaphors all the time.

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Ultimately, Shereshevsky's story is a poignant reminder that the most extraordinary abilities often come with unseen challenges, teaching us the invaluable lesson of embracing our human limitations as much as our strengths.

While S’s memory superpower is incredible, let’s take a moment to be grateful that we’re not completely overwhelmed with synesthesia and persistent memories of everything. If you’re afflicted by this condition yourself, please do comment so we can hear what it’s like!

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