Inhibitory control in addictive behaviors: is there room for memory suppression?

“If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing” (James, 1890). This phrase by James, like many others found in his masterpiece, The Principles of Psychology, perfectly encapsulates the idea that forgetting, contrary to common perception, is (in most cases) not a negative phenomenon, but serves essential adaptive functions in human life. Indeed, forgetting may be essential for mental health, as it helps regulate negative emotions by limiting access to unpleasant or embarrassing memories, thereby fostering subjective wellbeing and emotional resilience (Nørby, 2018). It also plays a crucial role in learning, facilitating the transition from detailed episodic memories to more generalized and efficient knowledge. An extreme example of the challenges associated with remembering vast amounts of information is the famous case of Solomon Shereshevsky, a Russian journalist with an extraordinary memory who was unable to forget irrelevant details, often becoming overwhelmed by excessive mental associations, as beautifully documented by Alexander Luria in the second half of the 20th century (Luria, 1968; also see Fawcett and Hulbert, 2020; Price and Davis, 2008). Moreover, forgetting ensures that our cognitive processing remains relevant to the present and future, as it filters out outdated information, enabling us to adapt flexibly to new situations and make better-guided decisions (Kuhl et al., 2007; Richards and Frankland, 2017). Thus, forgetting proves to be not only a necessary process for maintaining a healthy emotional state but also an essential mechanism for efficient cognition and dynamic adaptation to an ever-changing environment.