hyperthymesia

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ("excessive remembering").This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

hyperthymesia (uncountable)

1. (medicine) A rare condition in which an individual possesses a superior autobiographical memory and is able to recall the vast majority of personal experiences and events in his or her life.
   • 2008, Mikita Brottman, The Solitary Vice: Against Reading‎, page 160:

     Others may have some degree of hyperthymesia — they may spend an abnormally large amount of time thinking about their personal past, and have an extraordinary capacity to recall specific events in detail.

   • 2012, Marilu Henner, Total Memory Makeover: Uncover Your Past, Take Charge of Your Future‎, page 8:

     Lesley hadn't been interested in the story, because she didn't think that HSAM (or hyperthymesia, as it was called then) was that rare, having known me for so many years.

   • 2013, Annette Kujawski Taylor, Hyperthymesia, Annette Kujawski Taylor (editor), Encyclopedia of Human Memory, page 547,

     Hyperthymesia is also known as superior autobiographical memory. People either have it or they do not, and there are no more than 20 documented cases of people known to have hyperthymesia. […] Most people diagnosed with hyperthymesia can remember minute details of events from any given day in their past lives, sometimes beginning with puberty but often going back to early childhood.

   • 2013, Deepak Chopra, Rudolph E. Tanzi, Super Brain: Unleash the Explosive Power of Your Mind , page 46,

     We discussed memory in the previous chapter of this book, and hyperthymesia is the ultimate example of an ability that everyone shares being carried to superhuman lengths—only, it's very human still.