In order to understand the effects of war and conflicts, you need to take a look at underlying causes. Devastation, loss, dismay and fear are concepts of war that take victims of war in their grip. For instance, post traumatic stress disorders keep victims of war in a constant state of fear. These post traumatic stress disorders are an effect of recalling painful memories. If it was possible to erase these memories, and therefore erase the fear, wouldn’t that be the solution?

Although it sounds like science fiction, it's possible to erase your memories. Several studies have shown that the drug Metyrapone has this ability. By using this medicine one has a significant difficulty to retrieve memories with negative emotional content, while memories with neutral content are being remembered. In this way only the negative memories will be erased. This makes the potentialities of Metyrapone a big step in healing victims of war, including the soldiers who served during war. It can help to delete fear and recover the damage caused by war.

Captivated by the idea that you can fiddle with memory, Alicia Framis made ‘Room to Forget’: a glass room filled with Metyrapone which serves as a haven of refuge for victims of war.

Of course everyone has bad memories and if it would be that simple to delete those memories by just taking a pill, probably the majority of the people would take the pill in a heart beat. But if you would rethink this possibility, would you still take this pill? Bad memories are also a reminder of how things should be done differently would the same situation occur again. Bad memories make you learn from your mistakes in the past. Isn't it also that these bad memories make you the person you are now?