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{{trope}}
[[File:Changeling.jpg|link=Changeling: The Lost
{{quote|''"You say you don't have any objectives? That's tragic, you know, but you are still confused. The fact that you are empty means that you can fill that emptiness with as much as you want. [[Sarcasm Mode|You happy person, where's a better future than that?]]"'' |'''Touko''', ''[[Kara no Kyoukai:]]''}}
What defines "you"? The concept of identity, never mind [[
Is it your memories? Those can be [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|removed]] or [[Fake Memories|altered.]] (Oh, are there [[Easy Amnesia|ever]] so many [[Forgot the Call|ways]].) How about your personality? Well, that [[Character Development|changes over time naturally]] like it or not, but then again [[Dead Person Impersonation|you can play someone else]] and find [[Becoming the Mask|you like being them better]]. Is it your body? Less luck there, if it isn't a [[Freaky Friday|body swap]] it's a [[Gender Bender|gender swap]] or [[What Have I Become?|something]] [[Emergency Transformation|much]] [[Transformation Trauma|worse]]. Does the [[Soul]] have anything to do with this? Are you still "you" if you reincarnate?
Then again, most of the previous changes are negative, but what about ''positive'' alterations? [[Flowers for Algernon Syndrome]] and [[What Measure Is a Non Super]] make you wonder just how valuable you are when you gain... or lose... faculties. [[The Mind Is a Plaything of
Don't let our meandering college philosophy depress you. After all, every non-nerve cell in your body is replaced in seven years (some die and get replaced, some go through mitosis and divide into two... wait, would that make those the same cell or two new ones? Does the original count as dead after that? Argh!), and
Not to be confused with an [[Assimilation Plot]], in which your identity is subsumed into a [[Hive Mind]]. Compare [[Split Personality Merge]], where two personalities become one, and [[Mental Fusion]], where separate minds briefly become one. See also [[Amnesiac Lover]], who doesn't know how to love back after becoming an amnesiac. [[Grand Theft Me]] can happen if said identity was stolen. Living in a society where you can't have a real identity is [[Individuality Is Illegal]]. See also [[Quest for Identity]]. Compare [[Lost in Character]], where an actor becomes lost in a role.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* Carefully analyzed in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', where the entirety of {{spoiler|Fate's [[Dark Magical Girl]]
* This is one of the central points in ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]''. Lain is a painfully reclusive girl who barely speaks to anyone, but what about the Lain who spends every night drinking and hooking up at the clubs? Later, when some of [[The Men in Black]] are asking her some questions, she asks "Who are you?" They turn the question around, and ask her {{spoiler|when her father was born.}} She can't answer, because {{spoiler|her family is fake and she was never human in the first place}}.
** This is also her source of angst in the final episode, when she wonders who she is after {{spoiler|erasing herself from everyone's memories, discarding her physical body, and altering history so she was never there}}.
* The point of most [[Instrumentality]] plots - as seen on ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' and ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' among others - is to relieve humanity of the burden of isolation that comes with individual identities.
* A major theme of ''[[Kara no Kyoukai:]]''. Shiki wakes up after a two year coma and is only able to feel " " - literally nothing, emptiness. She is unable to connect herself to the "her" from her memories, and no longer {{spoiler|has the "split personality" that she had been born with to keep her company}}. Her finding something to continue living for is a major issue for the rest of the series.
** Also done on a lesser scale with Tohko, who at one point {{spoiler|created an ''exact'' duplicate of her body, down to the last detail, which made her realize that her own individuality was completely meaningless, as that body could exist as her on its own. She links it to her consciousness and sets it to wake up the instant her current body dies, so it quite literally ''is'' her, complete with memories and everything}}.
* In ''[[Monster (
* A [[Alternate Character Interpretation|darker take]] of [[Ranma
* [[Fullmetal Alchemist]]: As Envy said, the tortured souls that compose his body perished a long time ago in mind and body. This may be true for all other souls that make up the Philospher's Stone.
** Al is also drawn into a [[Heroic BSOD]] by Barry by implying that his memories and body were just crafted by Ed.
** Happens for real with {{spoiler|Pride}}, who loses his memories and personality, and assumes the role of {{spoiler|Selim Bradley}}.
* Light's {{spoiler|[[Memory Gambit]]}} in ''[[
** What he ''becomes'' is himself, minus all Kira-related [[Character Development]], but plus the character development of having encountered [[The Rival|someone just as smart as himself]] (L ''may'' be smarter, but he handicaps himself with rules so it's hard to tell) and having something interesting going on in his life. Being totally selfish, he wouldn't have become Kira, gambling with his life and self, if he hadn't been bored to the depths of his soul, so there is a distinct difference even from the bright-eyed Light in the early chapters, let alone Kira at his height. Is this still 'him'? Maybe, maybe not. Hence all the questions at the top of the page.
* A possible outcome of repeating many [[Groundhog Day Loop
* This is one of the driving forces of [[Blue Drop]]: Tenshi no Bokura. The protagonist's male best friend had his brain downloaded by aliens and copied into the body of a female alien, and his real body was cremated. Over the course of the series the copy- and thus the human and masculine identity- slowly fade away, leaving behind the [[Blue and Orange Morality|most definitely not human]] original inhabitant of the body. Worst of all, the human identity doesn't fade away entirely, and by the end, the creature that is left is too human to retain its alien identity, and too [[Blue and Orange Morality|alien]] to retain its human identity.
* This is an effect of the conditioning given to the cyborgs of ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'', where they are turned into blank slates who can be programmed to perform any function needed and it ensures loyalty to [[The Handler]]. That's when it's deliberate, {{spoiler|like when Jose finally crumbles under all of the stress of the job and keeping up pretense with Henrietta that he [[Took a Level
** It also happens when the girls are first turned into cyborgs, as all of them are plucked from near death and it's best to condition over their mental trauma, although Rico still remembers what it's like before the Agency found her and Triela knows that she was found in Amsterdam.
* In ''[[Spirited Away]]'', Yubaba binds people to her service by stealing their names and memories. Even Chihiro who was there for less than a day was already to beginning to forget her real name.
* In ''[[
* The driving force behind Kabuto's villainy in ''[[
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Superman]]'' #296-299 had a storyline where Superman finds himself powerless as Clark Kent and spent most of it sticking to one identity while trying not to fall back on the other. In the end, he had come to a realization:
{{quote|
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* While ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' fanfic adores this trope, the ''Brotherhood of Shadow'' fan-made expansion pack cranks it [[Up to Eleven]] with virtually ''every'' major character abandoning, obliterating, and adopting new identities. A Twi'lek named Channa Mae was found by Jedi Master Solomon, who nicknamed her "Matilda." When the Mandalorian Wars came, Channa Mae abandoned Solomon and the Jedi, as well as the nickname, to fight for Revan's cause. After the war, she abandoned even the Channa Mae identity to become "Shadow," Revan's assassin/aide/secret apprentice. {{spoiler|When Revan "died," Shadow found her Force connection severed and became Sera Degana, a crewman on a smuggling vessel. But, then Revan and Solomon come back into her life...}} Another example is Kobayashi, {{spoiler|who was once a Jedi apprentice, and lost his own Force connection after his master was killed}}, then took on a new identity as a scout and smuggler. Solomon also abandons ''his'' identity {{spoiler|after being critically wounded and thought dead on Taris. His goal is to kill Revan - and Shadow - to avenge his former Padawan and his niece (who Channa had to kill in self-defense)}}. The Brotherhood of Shadow itself cements it all - they were an elite Sith order who were critical in repelling the Rakatan invasion of their world, seeing themselves as a single unit, not as individuals. {{spoiler|When the first Sith Lords betrayed them, the entire Brotherhood was locked in a mind-trap. Over the millennia, they truly did become a single mind - one looking for a host}}.
* ''[[Final Stand of Death]]'' has Melanie of Liverpool with this problem despite attempts to avert it.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Dark City]]'' goes hog-wild with this trope. Every resident in the city (except Dr. Schreber, and even he's not truly spared) is not who they think they are. Every night, The Strangers will go in and mix up a new batch of memories for every person in The City. There is no telling how many years this is going on, and it's highly unlikely that there's any copies of each person's ''original'' memories, and thus personality.
** [[The Hero]]'s refusal of the serial killer identity becomes a major plot point because {{spoiler|The City was set up to determine whether memories were the deciding factor. Now that they have proof that they weren't, they can shut it down for good.}}
* The 1996 movie adaptation of ''[[Casper (
* This is the crux for much of the drama in ''[[Regarding Henry]]'', starring [[Harrison Ford]]. In it, the title character [['Tis Only a Bullet
* This is a major theme of ''[[Don't Look Back (
== [[Literature]] ==
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** Memory charms are also a means of rewriting a person's memories, and thus creating new identities for them.
* Intercision in ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' separates a person from their daemon. At best this means they become incurious and weak-willed, at worst it means they hang around ghoulishly and then die.
* 1930s pulp hero [[Doc Savage]] maintained a secret installation where he used brain surgery and memory modification to 'cure' captured villains' criminal tendencies and turn them into productive members of
* In ''[[
* ''The Second Trip'' is about a new person, who was a criminal who had his memory erased and a new personality implanted in him. It is his "second trip" in life.
* This is the most important theme of Robert Bolt's play ''[[A Man for All Seasons]]''. In his introduction to the play, Bolt explains how taking an oath is committing one's whole ''self'' to the statement. A man can lose his family, his job, and his wealth, but if he is willing to draw a line in the sand and say "I will ''not'' do this thing, under any circumstances", then he probably has a clear sense of who he is.
{{quote|
* One of the major characters in ''[[Larry Niven|The World of Ptavvs]]'' is a telepath who seeks to understand aliens by absorbing their memories and worldviews, which become just as "real" to him as his own. Only the fact that he's still in his own body allows him to know which memories are his. Then he absorbs memories from another telepath, an alien who has much more experience with other species than he does, and spends most of the book identifying as and acting like that
* ''Memory'' by Linda Nagata explicitly answers one of the above questions: if you reincarnate, you're not really the you that you once were. You have the same [[One True Pairing|soulmate]] (of whom there's one and only one [[Strangled
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene
*
** The setting also has telepaths, who're subject to a lesser version of this trope. The memories of other people are just as real to them as their own, and if they happen to [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing
** One story in the setting, ''Lifeloop'', deals with this trope from an entirely different direction: the relationship between actors and their roles. The main character acts in real-time, unscripted porn films that are filmed over the course of several days, and has learned to fit herself perfectly to her roles. The actor she's matched with for one assignment breaks the fourth wall and confesses that he loves her, not the character she's playing. She goes along, improvising with him, but completely fails to realize that he isn't acting as well.
* In the ''[[X Wing Series]]'', there is a [[Deep
{{quote|
** Then things got complicated.
* Mike Resnick's short story "Me and My Shadow" posits a world akin to that in ''The Demolished Man'', where convicted criminals are "erased" and given benign personalities. The narrator is one of
* Happens in the sci-fi novel ''The Lord Of The World'' by Russian author Alexander Belyaev. Ludwig Stirner, after realising that he cannot go on with his plans, {{spoiler|releases Elza from the thoughts and feelings he programmed in her mind and apologizes to her}}. Finally, he decides the best way to deal with himself is {{spoiler|to use his own machine against his mind to create a new identity, locking his true self deep within his subconsciousness, thus "ending Stirner's life" as he put it}}.
* In ''[[Known Space|The Ringworld Engineers]]'', Nessus gains leverage over Chmeee by dosing him with (hitherto unknown) Kzinti [[Immortality|boosterspice]]. Because he is now younger and scar-free, he would lose his rather comfortable identity in Kzinti society unless he is provided with evidence to support his story.
** Chmeee also considers his scars to be part of his personal identity as a warrior, and the loss of them to be almost like losing his memories of the fights where he got them.
* After spending eighteen years near-catatonic due to losing the ability to feel positive emotions, the protagonist of Greg Egan's short story "Reasons to be Cheerful" undergoes a neurological experiment that gives him the capacity to consciously choose to enjoy or not enjoy things. Cue ([[Wangst|w]])angst over the fact that all his preferences are artificial, eventually leavened by the conclusion that everyone else' preferences are artificial too, and he's just more aware of it.
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Hermetic Millenium
* In ''The Wereling Trilogy'', most people who are turned into werewolves become violent and no longer identify with other humans.
* "Death of personality" has replaced capital punishment in ''[[Babylon 5]]''. A machine [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|wipes the personality and memory]] of a murderer and [[Fake Memories|replaces them with a new set]], letting them live out a life of willing hard community service [[Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story|with an assumed identity]] [[Tomato in
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Doctor Who
▲* Death of personality has replaced capital punishment in ''[[Babylon 5]]''. A machine [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|wipes the personality and memory]] of a murderer and [[Fake Memories|replaces them with a new set]], letting them live out a life of willing hard community service [[Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story|with an assumed identity]] [[Tomato in The Mirror|without them ever being the wiser.]] A telepath is present to perform scans before and after, so as to ascertain that the process has worked, but does not carry it out themself.
▲* [[Doctor Who (TV)|The Doctor]]'s ability to [[The Nth Doctor|regenerate]] is an interesting twist on this: the many incarnations of the Doctor have entirely different looks and personalities, yet they somehow remain fundamentally the same character.
** Lampshaded [[Tear Jerker|heartbreakingly]] by the Tenth Doctor, who viewed each regeneration as the death of his current self.
** Also explored in the "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" two-parter, where the Doctor's [[Memory Gambit]] creates a completely new and separate "John Smith" identity with his own personality and memories, who is ''terrified'' at the idea that restoring the Doctor's memories will kill him. Seems like a reasonable reaction to realizing your entire life is a lie and you were invented on a whim by an unstoppable alien mastermind, frankly.
** In the episode "
** Also seen in what happens to victims of Cyber-conversion. The memories remain, but what this form (called "Human.2" by the Cybermen) lacks is emotions and a true understanding of what happened to them. It has been seen that those Cybermen who are made to realize the truth generally blow up, as they cannot live in that form.
* In a different vein, the TV series ''[[Nowhere Man]]'' had as its title character a man whose existence has been erased.
* [[Joss Whedon]] has begun to explore the effects of complete mental reprogramming in ''[[Dollhouse]]''.
** It also happened on ''[[
* An unintentional (... probably) side effect of the Wraith retrovirus in ''[[
* Done in a rather heavy-handed way on ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', in the episode "I Am Sylar".
** More is sure to come in volume 5 once {{spoiler|"Nathan" cottons on to the truth}}.
* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' dealt with this in "Tabula Rasa": a serial killer awakens from a three-year coma with total retrograde amnesia. The BAU tried to prove him guilty, but a couple of them raise the point that even if they did prove that the man named Brian Matlof was responsible for the murderers, the Brian Matlof sitting in court could be argued to be a different person. Eventually {{spoiler|his memories return, and he escapes, returning to one of the bodies to verify his own memories. When the BAU arrive, he threatens to kill himself, believing that he'll get the death penalty anyway, but Hotch says "if you really believe that you're a different person, prove it. Do the right thing", and Matlof decides to plead guilty instead, avoiding the death penalty}}.
* In ''[[Battlestar Galactica
== [[Music]] ==
* [[Supertramp]]'s "The Logical Song":
{{quote|
''I know it sounds absurd''
''Please tell me who I am."'' }}
== Philosophy ==
* A related philosophical question is called "The Ship of Theseus": if each plank in the ship is replaced when it starts to rot, and over time one-by-one every single plank is replaced, at what point (if ever) does it stop being the same ship?
** The Ship of Theseus is also known as George Washington's axe (my grandpa replaced the handle, and my father replaced the head, and I replaced the bindings).
*** There's a Kerryman joke to that effect: a Kerryman boasts that he's had the same axe for the past fifty years - with the handle and head replaced, respectively, five and eight times.
** Specifically, this trope is about the [[Contemplate Our Navels|philosophical problem]] of [
*** [[Teleporters and Transporters|Teletransportation]]: if a [[Star Trek|teleporter]] dematerialises you and reconstructs you elsewhere, are the iterations the same person? What if the original is never deconstructed, but a [[Alternate Self|duplicate]] is made?
*** [[Brain In
** Not so much Philosophy but a real life example that I personally believe answers this question somewhat
**
*** And what if the old head, rather than being thrown out entirely, is reforged into a new head for a new axe? Is that ''also'' the hereditary axe?
** Keep in mind this also applies to people. Excluding brain cells, your entire body is completely replaced about once per decade.
*** However that "excluding brain cells" is a pretty big rider, since the brain is often seen as the sole nexus of personhood.
*** No, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121026042749/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=saving-new-brain-cells brains aren't excluded]. Old neurons die, new ones are made. It's not just to counteract the wear and tear, but part of forming new memories.
*** In addition, our particles are in constant flux. On the lowest observable levels, we aren't the same from one ''nanosecond'' to the next.
*** Even with the cells that stick around for a few years atom that make up the cell wont be same from one month to the next. Your entire body is only a channel for matter, all the atoms in your body wont be within a few months and as creepy as it is a lot of them will probable be in other peoples bodies and vice versa.
*** In ''[[
* I've read that you, right now, have none of the same cells you had seven years ago, because seven years is the time it takes for the most long-lived cells to die and be replaced, or alternately grow too large and divide. I guess that book - ''Your Inner Fish'' - was ignoring brain/nerve cells.
* A crucial part of the [[
* [[Truth in Television]]: Lobotomies, this is a surgical procedure where the frontal lobes are removed (or a few vital areas are sliced), essentially destroying the personality of the individual concerned.
** [
** It seems to depend. During the period where lobotomies were a popular treatment for troubled teens, a "doctor" developed the non-skull-breaking technique of sticking a thin rod ''[[Eye Scream|through the eye socket]]'', swerving around the eyeball, and stirring it around in the frontal lobe. There's a picture of said doctor merrily doing this to two patients at once. Results varied wildly. Some people hardly seemed affected at all, aside from being very pissed about it. Brains are complicated things that can form new connections to make up for some damage. That's how despite losing brain cells every year, humans don't peak in intelligence at twenty-five and get stupider from that point on. Brain cells can take up a lot of slack.
** Lobotomies, in their original form, certainly have a well-deserved reputation for being dangerous and damaging the subject's personality, but modern developments (such as the cingulotomy) are apparently far less so, and can be far more successful in alleviating mental disorders without disrupting an individual's personality. The book ''Opening Skinner's Box'' by Lauren Slater devoted a chapter to psychosurgery where she pointed out that cingulotomy surgery tends to be much more effective than conventional psychopharmocological drugs in treating long-lasting mental disorders, but the former is still stigmatized as highly unsafe and invasive, so surgery is rarely carried out. In the US, an individual with severe mental disabilities must demonstrate that a large variety of drugs have had no effect in alleviating their suffering before a cingulotomy will be considered.
* There's also ''The Myth of Fingerprints'', where fingerprints from say
** Fingerprints stay the same all your life barring injury, and nerve cells, if none of the others, last a lifetime. Bone cells too can last years. They might just be longer-lasting than the actual bones, which are continuously being broken down for calcium and rebuilt from more calcium.
*** Actually some recent studies have shown that brain
** That logic was played with by Terry Pratchett in one of the Discworld books. Sgt. Colon, in an attempt to look somewhat more intelligent, makes the
*** Cells aren't all like the ones in hair and the outer layers of skin. They don't all get pushed outwards by new cells and slough off. Tattoos are ''in'' the skin, not ''on'' it. Cells in the skin weaken and are replaced, they come apart and get cannibalized for parts. If that doesn't happen, they undergo mitosis and divide into two cells, genetically "you" but not the same cell as before. Ink stays in that layer. Tattoos do not cause "ink cells" to form. Colon, at least, is excused for ignorance.
== Religion ==
* According to reincarnation doctrine, deceased souls are brought back to life in another body... but that doesn't mean they come back as a whole person or animal with any memories intact.
** The Dali Lama is found each time by placing a young child in front of a wide selection of toys; he'll play with the same ones every time. So something is kept
* In ''[[Dungeons
▲== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
▲* In [[Dungeons and Dragons]], getting bitten by an Ophidian (snake-like creatures commonly found as slaves of the evil serpentine Yuan-ti) results in a not-so-pretty transformation process. After two weeks, the victim fully transforms into another Ophidian, with no memory of its previous existence.
** Similarly, a Mind Flayer larva devours the brain of a host humanoid, and absorbs the host body as part of its own, in a process called ceremorphosis. The newborn creature has no memory of its host's existence. However, mind flayers scare other mind flayers with stories of the Adversary, a mind flayer who retained its host's personality and, in revenge, dedicated itself to destroying mind flayer society from the inside.
** Also true of some varieties of slaad (embodiments of [[Chaotic Neutral]]), of bodaks (featureless beings similar to but distinct from doppelgangers), and of many varieties of undead. This seems to be associated with magical creatures that are either evil, or so chaotic as to be completely beyond conventional morality.
* The [[New World of Darkness]] uses this often as an example of what happens when your [[Karma Meter]] bottoms out.
** ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''
** ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]''
** ''[[
** ''[[
== [[Toys]] ==
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** Another example is what happened to the Toa Mata. Due to their malfunctioning canisters, they drifted for such a long time in the ocean that their muscles rotted away ([[Fridge Logic|even though the canisters were sealed]]) and their body parts got jumbled together. When they awoke and [[Pulling Themselves Together|put themselves back together]], it took some time for their lost identities to reemerge, however only their leader Tahu got his full memories back eventually.
== [[Tropes]] ==▼
* The [[Mind Manipulation]] tropes page would count, since it's about messing with people's loyalties and turning them against their friends and families.▼
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[
* A main theme in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'', where {{spoiler|Kairi's nobody,}} Naminé, was used by Organization XIII to rearrange and implant new memories into Sora's heart to make him a controllable pawn. Also happens to {{spoiler|Sora's nobody,}} Roxas, who's memories are wiped by Ansem the Wise and placed in a simulated world with a completely new identity.
** {{spoiler|Xion counts too. Her memories are just a copy of Sora's.}}
** {{spoiler|As well as Xehanort (or Terra's body with Xehanort's soul), whose memory was erased after being beaten by Terra's possessed armor and transported into Radiant Garden in Birth By Sleep.}}
** ...and the villains, who appear not to remember Sora and his gang despite him kicking their asses in the earlier games.
* This trope is the ultimate fear of [[Super Robot Wars|Lamia Loveless]]. When she asked the question "What is left from a soldier, when you take away their mission?", which got rebuked with the answer: "There's still human left!", she slowly starts noticing her identity as a normal soul (despite being [[Artificial Human]]). Further interaction and she finally learns to value her own identity, but feared that she would one day turn into a mindless doll, which prompts Kyosuke to promise her that he'd destroy her the moment she ever turns that way... But then, comes the ODE and Duminuss, all who attempted to rob her identity of a new human being and try to turn her into a mindless doll, like the way she was created, and almost succeeded permanently if it wasn't for Axel's interference (and a bit of her willpower).
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', after the [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Cyborg Ninja]] slices off Revolver Ocelot's hand, he has a [[Freak
* ''[[Super Mario Bros.|Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'': Mario gets his identity and body stolen in the middle of a boss-fight by a Duplight-Ghost called "Doopliss". It seems that this even rendered him unable of pronouncing the word "Mario", since Vivian can't understand his answer when she asks him for his name.
* Nero Chaos in ''[[Tsukihime]]'' long ago lost his human identity in favor of a collective. The collective is also losing its identify and turning into chaos. Currently, he simply intends to live long enough to figure out exactly what ''that'' is.
* In ''Phoenix Wright: [[Ace Attorney]] - Justice for All'', this is part of {{spoiler|Ini/Mimi Miney's}} motivation to murder. {{spoiler|She was in a horrible car accident in which the real Ini, her younger sister was killed. She gave them Ini's photo to reconstruct her face with because she was ashamed of being the nurse whose mistakes (she partially blames on [[Asshole Victim|the victim]]) killed patients. Then in her break down, she despairs that she had to keep living as her sister for the rest of her life.}}
* ''Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns'' does this with its Ceyah faction, who have abandoned Kohan society in search of greater power and adopted new identities; some go so far as to change their appearance by altering their form or donning a mask.
** The sequel adds new wrinkles to this by adding the Fallen faction - Kohan who have gone so far over the line that even the Ceyah want nothing to do with them; Ceyah who join the Fallen often abandon their ''Ceyah'' identities and mutate even farther. The Fallen's leader Abbadon is an extreme example of this; not only has he mutated into a city-smashing monster, but he gains the power to ''force'' the Fallen transformation in others, Ceyah or otherwise.
* ''[[
* [[Final Fantasy VII|Cloud Strife]] is one of the more famous gaming examples of this trope. Going through [[Heroic BSOD]] at least twice, [[Fake Memories|unconsciously]] [[Dead Person Impersonation|impersonating his dead best friend]], near constant [[Mind Screw]] by the game's [[Big Bad]], and then when he [[Tear Jerker|really believes that he's just a construct and not the real Cloud]]. A large portion of the game is about Cloud losing and finding his identity.
* ''[[Persona 2]]'' turned this into even more of [[Nightmare Fuel]] with the Joker's curse. Sure, kid! Call in and get any wish you want! ''[[Schmuck Bait|Any wish!]]'' What they don't tell you is that if you're too weak, Joker drains you of your dreams, hopes and wishes, turning you into a Shadow Self that gradually fades into oblivion as you lose your identity to Joker's crystal skull. And get this - it also works by using a special
* ''[[Legacy of Kain
* In ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'', Birkin suffers from this after his G-Virus induced [[One-Winged Angel|transmutation]].
* In the [[Neverwinter Nights]] fan module Excrucio Eternum, the elf girl Songbird has literally no sense of self because she has been in a cage her entire life, and has been brainwashed to refer to herself as "it".
* In the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' universe this is one of the early signs of Reaper indoctrination. The ability of victims to think clearly and maintain a sense of self degrades and they eventually become little more than slaves of the Reapers, believing them to be gods and the only good thing in the universe. And then come the [[Unwilling Roboticisation|Dragon's Teeth]].
* Big Daddies in ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Misfile]]'', Ash is turned into a girl and history is rewritten to reflect that Ash had always been a girl. Even though Ash has a good (apparently better) life, he believes that he can't give in because if he does, it's tantamount to suicide for boy!Ash. Worse, if the misfile is exposed and covered up, he won't have a choice any more. Ash is constantly proving to himself that he's still the Ash he remembers instead of the Ash that the rest of the world remembers.
* In a recent storyline of ''[[The Wotch]]'' (which generally tends to gloss over this trope), Ivan wrestles with this after he is [[Gender Bender|transformed]] via an extremely vindictive [[Disproportionate Retribution|punishment]] for snooping and trespassing by Miranda West, giving us the image, and eventually comes out for the better by reasserting his goals.
* Depending on how you look at things, Ellen in ''[[
** This trope is the reason that Justin refuses to allow himself to be permanently transformed into a girl (he knows that a girl being attracted to guys would earn him less ridicule than being a guy attracted to guys). Even if it would make his life easier, he still identifies as a man.
* In ''[[Jack (
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'' Lil Evil foolishly washes himself with the waters of the Lethe [
* ''[[The Archipelago]]'' - When people who knew Blitz before he lost his memory meet him, they all agree that he's a completely different from Anthony, the person they knew.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Happens in many, many Transformation, Robot, or other such things pictures, stories, comics, and other such things. There's a very good chance that, if transformed into something else, a character will cease to be who they are. Occurs often in [http://arania.kamiki.net the work of Arania], and also in some of [http://www.process-productions.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16763 the stories of Amhein].
* Also frequently the end result of [[Age Regression]] works; after the character is physically age-regressed, they may or may not retain their memories and personality; however even if they do not immediately fall back into childish behaviour patterns, such changes usually happen whether they are preferable or not. This often affects memories as well, such that the process of regression will cause them to forget that they are regressing; it's hard to fight against something that you don't even know is happening to you until it's too late....
* In ''[[Arcana Magi]]'', this happens to Alysia. To the point that she believes her new identity IS her real identity, even though she still has some of her real original memories intact.
* A common fate of victims in ''[[The Slender Man Mythos]]''.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the ''[[Teen Titans (
* Spoofed in the ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
▲== [[Tropes]] ==
▲* The [[Mind Manipulation]] tropes page would count, since it's about messing with people's loyalties and turning them against their friends and families.
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[[Category:Memory Tropes]]
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