When PURPOSE Replaces Memory, We Build Our Own Prison | Memento

The Meaning Behind: Movie Reflections · Oct 26, 2026 · 18m

Have you ever kept a story about yourself going, not because it was still true, but because letting it go felt like losing your footing entirely? Memento follows Leonard Shelby through a system built to replace what his mind can no longer hold, and this episode reads that system through the psychology of motivated reasoning and self protective memory. The question at the center of everything is this: is there a story you keep telling yourself that you know, somewhere, is not quite true?

The episode explores how Leonard's tools for making sense of the world become the very tools he uses to…