Definition of "forgetting"

Jelliffe […] asks again and again […] how it was possible for an illness which had been described unmistakably innumerable times to be 'forgotten' anew by each generation. Such forgettings are as dangerous as they are mysterious, for they give us an unwarranted sense of security.

1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings

This inability to articulate a complete description can be thought of as of a "piece" with human finitude; the limits, deaths, and forgettings, the "off switches" that also comprise the human narrative.

1997, Richard Doyle, On Beyond Living, page 108