ABSTRACT
Like trauma theory, the study of retrograde amnesia and Capgras syndrome has undergone tremendous changes due to the late twentieth- century paradigm shift in psychiatry. Whereas earlier theories used to favor psychodynamic approaches, which take the patient's early life and inner conflicts into account, contemporary research tends to privilege neurobiological explanations, which focus on the detection and treatment of organic causes. Since the 1980s, the rise of neurocognitivism and neuroimaging has shifted the focus from psychoanalytic to neurobiological explanations. Powers's concept of the birds' memory seems to be modeled after Freud's notion of collective trauma and history. Powers is not the first to discover the political significance of this particular species. Environmental activists have revealed that cranes have not only become endangered symbols of hope and cultural heritage but also actual victims of US foreign policy and are therefore intimately related to humans who suffered the same fate.
